Those 4 years we missed
by BossVicCossWynch
Summary: Ever wondered what happened between the four years between "Musicals & Moving On" and "Duets & Destiny"? How exactly did Austin and Ally break up? Well, here is my take on what happened presented in an 8 part story.
1. Year 1: part 1

"I'll give you guys a few minutes to say goodbye," Jimmy told Austin, before walking onto the private plane.

Austin turned to look at all the most important people in his life.

All the people he had to say goodbye to.

He started with his parents. He hugged them both tightly and told them he loved them. They hugged him back, told him to have a good tour, and that they loved him too.

He then moved to his girlfriend's father, who had came to see him off. He hugged him just as tightly as he had hugged his own father. He thanked him for all he had done for him. The man responded by thanking him too. Thanking him for all he had done for his daughter and all the happiness he had brought her.

He broke apart from his girlfriend's father and looked at the three people standing before him who he had yet to say goodbye to. Here comes the hard part.

Austin felt tears spring to his eyes as he looked at the three most important people in his entire life.

The three standing before him had tears in their eyes too. All four of them were thinking the same thing.

When did we grow up? When did we become adults?

Trish stepped forward first, pulling Austin in for a long hug. He thanked her for everything she had done for him, told her to break a leg with her new show, and wished her good luck running the music factory. She told him to have a good time on tour and that she loved him. He told her that he loved her too.

Trish pulled away from him and Dez stepped forward next. The boys always tried to keep their cool in emotional situations, especially in front of the girls because they felt like they needed to be strong for them; but now they couldn't help it. Each with tears streaming down their face, they embraced each other fiercely. They told each other to have fun on their new adventures, adventures for the first time ever that the other person wouldn't be a part of. They told each other they loved each other. They then pulled away from their hug, wiped their eyes, and did their signature handshake one last time.

There was only one person left. The one person who meant more to him than anything in the entire world.

Austin took a step forward, at a loss for words.

"Ally..." he began. "I-"

But then he was unable to speak. Not because he didn't know what to say, but because Ally's lips were against his, preventing any words from escaping his mouth.

She held his face in her hands and kissed him like she'd never be able to kiss him again. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body flush up against his, kissing her back passionately.

He could tell Ally wanted to speed the kiss up and make it more heated, but he slowed it down, making it passionate and loving.

So many emotions filled just this one kiss. There was sadness, obviously. Pain. A hint of anger. But also happiness and excitement. A lot of fear. And most of all, love.

He would've stood there kissing her for hours, but then he remembered that his parents, her father, and their best friends were all watching them, so he slowly pulled away.

"I guess this is goodbye," Ally said thickly, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Have fun on tour."

"Good luck at school," Austin smiled at the familiarity of the situation and the words they were saying, wiping her tears with his thumb. "I know you're gonna do great."

Ally threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his shoulder, trying to burn his scent into her memory.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, his head dropped into her hair as his eyes drifted shut, wanting to live in this exact moment forever.

"Austin!" Jimmy called out. "We gotta go!", Austin sighed as he and Ally slowly broke apart from their embrace.

"Have a safe flight," Ally told him. "Call me as soon as you land."

Austin nodded before leaning in to kiss her again.

"I love you," he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.

"I love you too," Ally replied, before giving him one last quick kiss.

Austin grabbed onto Ally's hand as he picked up his backpack and waved goodbye to everyone else, giving her hand one last squeeze before heading off to board the plane.

She started missing him the second he left.

Watching him get on that plane and fly off to embark on the next chapter of his life was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.

Because she couldn't stop him.

She couldn't run after him, kiss him senseless, and beg him to stay.

She couldn't.

Because she knew he would listen.

She knew if she asked him he would stay in a heartbeat.

And she couldn't keep him from going on his first national tour. Especially since she would be leaving to go to college in just a few weeks.

This was his dream.

The last thing she ever wanted to do was keep him from his dream.

She had already (unwillingly) done it once, and she still felt guilty about it.

Ever since that incident she felt as though she needed to make it up to him. Even though it wasn't her choice, it was all him, she still felt like she was to blame.

So here they were. The exact situation they would have been in a year ago if he hadn't given up his career for her.

A year ago they were leaving to go on her tour, him just a tagalong.

Now he was leaving for his big tour and she wasn't going. She couldn't go. This was his dream. She couldn't keep him from it.

The second she got home from seeing him off at the airport she flopped down onto her bed, sighing loudly; unsure of what to do with herself.

She waited anxiously for her phone to ring, knowing Austin was going to call he as soon as he landed.

Ally laid on her bed, staring at her phone on her nightstand for so long she ended up falling asleep.

Hours later, Ally was startled awake by her phone ringing.

She saw her boyfriend's name and picture on the screen, and scrambled to answer it as quickly as possible.

"Hey you," Ally sighed as she answered the phone, laying down flat on her back on his bed, a lovesick expression immediately washing over her face.

"Hey," Austin replied airily, Ally could tell he had an identical lovesick expression on his own face.

"How was your flight?" she asked.

"It was fine," he said. "Long; but it was fine. Private planes are pretty cool. I think I may look into getting one for myself."

"Of course," Ally said giggled fondly. "You're adorable. I miss you."

"Ally, it's been like 5 hours, tops," Austin said dryly, but she could tell he was smiling.

"That's 5 hours I could've spent with you!" Ally said. "Do you what all we could've done in 5 hours? A LOT."

"Tut, tut, Ally," Austin teased her. "Can you really not go 5 hours without getting all up on this bod?"

"Oh please, you're acting as though you didn't spend the past 5 hours thinking about the same thing," Ally retorted.

"That's not true!" Austin defended himself. "I pretended to listen to Jimmy's long pre-tour lecture while I was actually thinking about you. And what did you do in the last 5 hours, missy?"

"Mope and sleep. And think of you," Ally grumbled.

Austin chuckled.

"Aw poor baby," he cooed into the phone. "I miss you too."

"How are we gonna do this?" Ally asked. "It's been 5 hours and we're both already miserable. We don't even know when we're gonna see each other again! How are we supposed to do this?"

"I won't even try to sugarcoat it; it'll be horrible," Austin said. "But it'll get easier. The first day is always the hardest, you know that. And hey, we will FaceTime and text and talk on the phone as much as possible!"

"Yeah, but that's not the same," Ally said. "I wanna be able to hold you close to me and run my fingers through your hair. I wanna be able to hold your hand. I wanna be able to kiss you whenever I want. I just wanna be with you. I just want things to be the way they were."

"I know, baby," Austin said softly. "I'm sorry Ally, but I've gotta go. We're almost to the hotel."

"Oh, yeah I'll let you get going," Ally said.

"I'll text you as soon as rehearsals over tonight," Austin told her. "I love you."

"I love you too," she smiled into her phone before the line went dead.

Placing her phone back on her nightstand, Ally sighed loudly and flopped back onto her bed.

This new reality was gonna take some getting used to.

...

The first week was rough.

Austin was getting adjusted to tour life while Ally got adjusted to life without Austin.

After the first week, things started to settle into a routine.

Austin was growing used to tour, Ally would help Trish at the factory, the two would talk as much as possible, and that's just how it was.

And they hated it.

They hated how they were becoming so used to being apart. They hated how they still missed each other. They hated how they felt like they were being held back.

Both of them had been very short with those around them that first week; their patience thin.

They had never had to be apart from each other. The only time they were apart for a significant amount of time was Austin's first tour, and that was only for about two months; not to mention it was before they got back together.

So they were still learning how to live their day to day life without each other.

And so far, they hated it.

...

After the second week things started to go back to normal.

Austin and Ally had gone back to their usual selfs; well, as close to their usual selfs that they could get whilst still completely missing their other half.

They had settled into routines with their means of communication; they would FaceTime every night starting at exactly nine o'clock, and lasting late into the night. They would talk on the phone if by any chance they weren't able to FaceTime.

Their FaceTime sessions and phone calls always consisted of each of them telling the other anything and everything that they had done that day, not leaving out a single detail. They would end with the couple bantering over who should hang up first, which always lasted for a solid five minutes.

On nights when they felt particularly lonely, they would call each other the second they ended their FaceTime, staying on the phone all night.

Every night before he went to sleep he would read from her book; whether it be old songs they had written or old journal entries, they would automatically transport him back to whenever it happened, making him forget the distance between them. He would also read the new songs she had written for him, but he limited himself to one new song a week since he didn't wanna run out of them.

Sometimes he felt overworked between his tour and managing his long distance relationship with Ally. But he obviously made it work since he wasn't willing to give up either thing.

Although sometimes he felt like he was willing to give up his career all over again and move to wherever Harvard was just so he could be with Ally.

But then he remembered how miserable he was when he was unable to make music.

No matter how demanding his career may be, he loved it and there's no way he'd be able to give it up again.

But sometimes just missing Ally felt like a full time job in it of itself.

...

It's scientifically proven that it takes exactly twenty one days to make or break a habit; meaning by the three week mark, Austin and Ally had finally settled all the way into their long distance relationship.

Everything has become a routine. Austin would wake up and text Ally good morning, she would wake up a few hours later (because of the time difference) and see his text then immediately text him back. They would each work all day, occasionally enjoy a short phone call over lunch, then they would FaceTime at night and tell the other all the things they had done that day, then around midnight they would end the FaceTime call and go back to texting until one fell asleep.

Everything was going fine.

Except, routine wasn't fine.

Everything felt so repetitive. They hardly talked like they used to. Every good morning text was the same, they wouldn't even continue the conversation after each had texted a half hazed "good morning". Their lunch time phone calls were becoming rarer, and every time they did have one, it always felt rushed. Their FaceTime sessions had grown ritual; they'd each recall the highlights and funny moments from their day, glossing over most small details that they used to never ignore. And their late night text conversations had been getting shorter and shorter; to the point where one of them would say they were going to sleep when they really weren't just to get out of it so they could do something else. They chose to blame it on the time difference, that was obviously the whole reason behind it.

Damn time zones.

...

After a month apart the duo started to become frustrated. Sexually frustrated.

And everyone around them could tell.

Both of them had been acting irritable and short with everyone they came in contact with, and they were sick of it.

Sure, there were many means of dealing with a problem such as this; but none of them had exactly what they wanted, which was just to be with each other.

One night, Ally just couldn't take it anymore.

It was a Friday night. She was home alone. Her dad was at some convention in Orlando.

Ally felt like doing something daring, something totally unlike her, something she and Austin had never done before: sexting.

To be honest, Ally wasn't exactly sure how to sext. They never had to! They were always around each other! She didn't know how to start it; even though she was an incredibly gifted writer, she would have no idea what to say.

But, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Feeling bold, Ally stripped down to her underwear (then changed into a matching set), stood in front of her full length mirror and started snapping pictures.

She made sure not to include her face in any of them, knowing that the press would have a field day if they got a hold on _the_ Ally Dawson's scandalous photos

Once she had taken a decent amount of photos, she put her clothes back on and searched through them to find the best one.

She ended up picking one where her hand was on her hip, her ass was sticking out and her boobs looked particularly larger than in the other pictures (probably because she was leaning forward slightly for that exact effect).

After playing with the lighting and coloring, deciding it looked as good as it could possibly get, Ally sent the picture to Austin, along with the message "I miss you...", followed by a smirk emoji.

Ally immediately felt anxious after the text had sent. She sat down on her bed and distracted herself with her computer while she waited for him to reply.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe, Austin was nearly asleep. He had been in rehearsal all day and he just wanted to back to his hotel room and sleep. And if he had the option, he would really enjoy sleeping with Ally; but sadly that wasn't an option.

Jimmy and his team were having a meeting, discussing tour stuff and whatnot. Austin was sitting at the large table Jimmy had in his hotel room, not paying a bit of attention.

Austin felt his phone buzz, taking a large gulp of his coffee before checking the message.

To say Austin was surprise by her text would be an understatement. When he saw the message Ally had sent him he spit out his entire mouthful of coffee all over the table.

Jimmy and the rest of his team turned to look at Austin.

"Sorry. Too hot," Austin coughed out. "And I'm sorry guys but I've gotta head out. I'm feeling kinda warm; I should probably go to bed. Don't wanna be getting sick."

"Oh yes, of course," Jimmy said. "Have a good night, Austin!"

"Yeah, yeah, you too!" Austin said quickly as he hurried out of the room.

Austin rushed out of the room, down the hall and entered his own hotel room.

He immediately pressed Ally's contact number and held his phone to his ear as it rang.

"Hello?" Ally answered smugly, he could tell she was smirking.

"You're killing me, smalls," Austin sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"You like?" Ally giggled.

"Like? Well let's see..." Austin said thoughtfully. "Seeing that picture during the meeting I was in caused me to spit coffee all over the table then make up that I was sick and rush out of the room before my dick exploded in my boss' presence. I hope you're happy with yourself, woman."

"Why yes I am, actually," Ally replied.

"What am I gonna do with you?" Austin said, a playfully amused tone in his voice as he sat down on the bed.

"I can think of a few things..." Ally said lustfully.

"Ally!" Austin whined. "I told you I hurt my hand in rehearsal today! And I'm using my non-injured hand to hold the phone so..."

"Well that's you're problem," Ally replied. "Both my hands are just looking for something to do..."

"I repeat: you're killing me, smalls," Austin said, flopping backwards onto the bed.

"I miss you," Ally said randomly, her voice full of sentiment, all the teasing gone.

"I miss you too," Austin said. "But hey, you're starting school soon! That's exciting!"

"Yeah, it is. But I still miss you," Ally sighed, laying down on her bed. "I miss you. Like I physically miss you. My body misses your body. I miss being with you. I just wanna be near you."

"I know you do." Austin said. "You have no idea what I would give to be holding you in my arms right now."

"What would you do?" Ally asked softly. "If I were in your arms right now, what would you do?"

Austin thought for a minute.

"I would stroke your hair and play with the ends with my fingers like you like," Austin said. "I would rub little circles on the small of your back where your shirt had ridden up. We would just talk. Every now and then I would kiss your head softly, and eventually we're fall asleep holding each other."

Ally let out a sigh.

"So how long is a flight from Belgium to Miami?" she whispered.

He chuckled.

Needless to say, Austin and Ally were not good at sexting.

...

Ally left for school 6 weeks later.

Things just got harder from there.

Now they had to balance their relationship between both of their busy schedules.

Whenever Ally wasn't in class Austin was in rehearsal or doing a show or meet and greet, and whenever Austin had down time Ally always seemed to be in class or studying or just socializing as a college student.

Their means of communication got cut back to one thing per day; either one phone call or one FaceTime session. They still texted a lot. But the time difference made it difficult to carry on any substantial conversation.

But everything was still fine, right?

...

October 31st. Halloween.

It was the first time Austin ever had no plans on Halloween. Ever since he was a kid he'd go out trick-or-treating, and when he got older he and Dez and the girls would usually end up at some swanky Halloween party.

But not this year.

He didn't have a show that night so he had decided to just have a chill night in his hotel room by himself.

So that's what he did.

He ordered room service, watched Hocus Pocus, then went to sleep at a reasonable hour since he had to wake up early the next day.

He would have called Ally, but it was her first Halloween at college and he knew she would be busy doing fun stuff with her new friends.

So he turned in early, falling asleep before midnight.

He woke up at six in the morning, he had a rehearsal at eight and he liked having some down time in the morning to start his day.

Grabbing his phone off his nightstand, he checked social media, seeing what he had missed from the night before, many pictures of his friends having a great time and of everyone's costumes.

He saw that his mentions were going crazy, even crazier than usual.

Curious, Austin checked them and saw only one picture: Ally and her friends in their Halloween costumes.

Ally's group of friends had decided to dress as "sexy breakfast foods".

And Ally was dressed as none other than a pancake.

A sexy pancake.

A sexy pancake wearing a skin tight strapless dress that barely covered her ass, showing off her magnificent legs. A sexy pancake wearing stilettos that elongated her already mile long legs. A sexy pancake with flawless hair, all curled and voluminous. A sexy pancake with dark eye makeup and a smirk on her lips, almost as if she knew that she was driving her boyfriend crazy even though he was thousands of miles away.

She really didn't look like a pancake at all. But that didn't stop Austin from wanting to lick up and down her entire delicious body.

And just speak of the devil, his girlfriend's name flashed across the screen as his phone began to vibrate.

"Hey you," Austin said, his voice raspy from having just woken up, and also because of how turned on he was after seeing that picture of his girlfriend.

"Ohmaigawd AUSSSTIIIN!" Ally slurred into the phone. "I miss youuuuuu!"

"I miss you too, honey," Austin laughed. "Hey, by any chance have you been drinking?"

"Nooooooooo!" Ally said.

"Are you sure?" Austin asked.

"Yah I'm SURE!" Ally said.

"Let me rephrase that, have you consumed any alcohol in the past 24 hours?" Austin said.

"Mayyybbeeee..." Ally giggled.

"Ally," Austin said sternly.

"I just had like some Jell-O shots!" Ally said.

"How many?" Austin asked, growing more and more concerned for his girlfriend's wellbeing.

"I don't know... A thousand," Ally giggled.

Austin sighed. She was completely wasted. Ally had always stayed away from alcohol. In fact, all four of never really drank in high school at all. They were all too consumed with their careers to do normal high school things like party and get drunk.

"Are you okay?" Austin asked her.

"I'm FINE," Ally said. "I just miss you."

"I miss you too, sweetheart," he sighed.

"Did you see my costume?" Ally asked in a sultry tone.

"Yes, in fact, I did see your costume," Austin told her.

"I wore it just for you," she told him, still slurring her words. "I really wish you were here to rip it off me and eat me like I was a pancake... OHMIGAWD HI!"

"Ally?" Austin said, confused.

"Sorry, I just saw some guy from my Spanish class," Ally told him.

"Where exactly are you?" Austin asked. "It sounds pretty loud."

"I'm at a party!" Ally said. "It's at this frat house- OH YES I WANT ONE!"

"Want what?" Austin said.

"Oh, I gotta go, they're starting another round of tequila shots!" Ally said quickly. "I love youuuu!"

"Ally, are you sure you're safe?" Austin said.

"Relax! Take a chill pill! I'm FINE!" Ally said. "Gosh, why are you being so protective?"

"I don't know, maybe because I care about you and I don't want anything bad to happen to you," Austin said.

"I am a grown ass independent woman, I don't need you to protect me or look out for me; okay, Austin Moon?" Ally said, suddenly sounding very defensive and slightly angry.

"I know that," Austin said calmly. "But I also know that you've never been in this type of situation before and I don't want anyone to take advantage of you or harm you in any way."

"I'll be fine," Ally said. "Stop worrying."

"Okay," Austin said simply. "I trust you."

"Good," she replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's some tequila shots waiting for me with my name on them. I'll call you later. I love you, BYYYEE."

And before he could even say anything else the line was dead.

Austin sighed and dropped his head back against the headboard, running his hands through his hair.

Yes, he does trust her; but he doesn't trust any of the other people there.

He just wanted her to be safe.

After a day full of rehearsing, performing, and meeting and greeting fans, Austin found himself back in his hotel room, exhausted.

He took a long, hot shower, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt (which just so happened to be a shirt from Ally's 'Finally Me' tour), then ordered some pancakes from room service.

Just as Austin had lied down in bed to enjoy his pancakes that had just arrived, his phone began ringing in the nightstand.

He looked over and saw that it was Ally who was calling. He quickly scrambled to answer the phone.

"Hey!" Austin answered the phone.

"Don't ever let me drink alcohol again," Ally groaned into the phone.

"That bad?" Austin said.

"I skipped all my classes today," Ally dead panned. "Yes, it's that bad."

"I'm sorry, baby," Austin said sympathetically. "I wish I was there to take care of you."

"Me too," Ally said. "You know that's why I drank last night. I thought it would dull the pain I felt from missing you, but it only made me miss you more."

"I don't know what to tell you, Als," Austin said honestly. "I just wish there was something I could do."

"Well, there's nothing you can do," Ally said. "You're in Europe and I'm in the states, you can't just fly all the way back to join my lame pity party."

"I know, but I wish I could," Austin said. "It's been way too long since we actually saw each other. I can hardly take it anymore."

"I know, baby," Ally said softly. "But this is what we wanted. We've gotta remember that this is what we want, what's best for both of us."

"You're right," Austin said. "And hey, being apart for so long will only make when we reunite even better."

"Yeah," Ally sighed. "I just wish it would come sooner."

"Me too, Als," Austin said. "Me too."

...

Spending Thanksgiving in England was not fun.

One of Austin's favorite parts of Thanksgiving was the parade, which was not on in England. Not to mention the time difference meant it hasn't even started in the states yet.

His parents said they would call him after everyone got to their house for dinner, which was still hours away.

His crew was all off doing their own thing today, Jimmy was hanging with some friends in the city.

He was all alone.

Austin decided to make the most of his lonely situation and go site seeing.

He sent a bunch of pictures to Ally, who he knew was still fast asleep in her own bed at her own house in Miami, but she would be excited to see them when she woke up.

Around noon it started to rain, so Austin made his was back to his hotel.

He spent all afternoon cooped up in his room, watching the stream of the parade on his computer, feeling sad that he wasn't at his childhood home.

Around five, while Austin was browsing the room service menu to find some sort of dish that contained turkey, there was a knock on his door.

Austin rolled off his bed and went to open the door, curious as to who it could be.

"Austin!" the person standing outside the door greeted him, her arms wide.

"Penny!" Austin said happily, hugging the woman tightly.

"What are you doing here?" Austin asked as they broke away from their hug, Austin leading Penny into the room. "Not that I'm not glad to see you! Because I really am."

"I'm working in London for the next few weeks and got in yesterday," Penny explained. "Ally told me you were here too; she said that you might be lonely and would probably appreciate seeing a familiar face."

"Well as usual, Ally was right," Austin said.

"Yep," Penny laughed. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. How about we go find some place that has turkey?"

"That sounds amazing," Austin said gratefully.

The pair left the hotel and went to find a restaurant to have honorary Thanksgiving dinner, in England.

They found a bistro near Austin's hotel, which was in the heart of London. They didn't even have to wait for a table, they were seated immediately.

"So how's the tour been?" Penny asked, after their waiter had taken their drink orders.

"Pretty good," Austin said. "All the shows have been selling out, so that's cool."

"How have you been?" she asked, a concerned motherly tone in her voice.

Austin shrugged.

"It has been lonely," he told her. "Trish and Dez were with me all of my first tour and Ally joined us towards the end. Then on Ally's tour it was the two of us. Now it's just me and the crew."

"How are you and Ally doing?" she asked quietly.

"As good as we can be doing," Austin sighed. "I miss her. I miss her so damn much. We talk as much as we can, but I'm just tired of the distance, ya know?"

"I know how you feel," Penny said. "It's miserable watching her do all this amazing stuff, and all you can do is wish you had been there when she did it."

Austin nodded.

"I mean, you obviously love and miss her in a very different way than I do, but I know how you feel," Penny said.

Austin laughed.

"I don't just miss... like.. being with her, ya know? I mean don't get me wrong, I miss holding her and kissing her and all that; but I also miss just seeing her smile everyday and hearing her laugh in person, like just simply being in her presence."

"So... Why are you still in it?" Penny asked. "Like you're both aware of how hard long distance relationships are, yet you continue to try. Like, what's your end goal?"

"Well..." Austin said slowly. "My plan, which I haven't discussed with Ally yet, is to finish out this tour then start working on my next album. And maybe even move up to Massachusetts. I'd work on music, Ally would graduate, we'd both go back to music full time, then we'd get married and start a family.

"We haven't seriously talked about this, really. I mean, we kinda talked about it seriously for the first time like a year ago when we had a school project where we were planning our fake wedding, but I seriously can't see anything else happening in my life. All I wanna do is spend it with Ally."

"Does she feel the same way?"

"I hope so," Austin said. "I know right now she isn't thinking that far ahead. She can't even comprehend anything that could happen after college, she's just so focused on school right now."

"You should tell her."

"I know," Austin sighed. "But I wanna do it in person. Like that's not a conversation you can have over the phone or on FaceTime."

"Good point," Penny said just as their food arrived.

The two began eating their turkey burgers, which was the closet thing to normal Thanksgiving food on the menu.

"So when do you get back to the states?" Penny asked.

"Two weeks," Austin said. "I have all of December off so my parents have planned this huge family vacation to Vermont. All my extended family is going too. So I guess that'll be fun."

"When will you see Ally?"

"My guess is around Christmas. I'm performing at the Disney Christmas parade in Orlando the week before so maybe she can come with me for that so the two of us can spend some time together."

"That'd be fun!" Penny said. "Ally loves Disney World. We used to take her all the time when she was little. I used to commute back and forth to Orlando one weekend a month to do stuff at Animal Kingdom and I would always take Ally.

"I remember one time when she was like 4 or 5, they gave us a behind the scenes tour of the safari because I worked with animals. And I was so focused on what we were talking about I didn't even notice that Ally had wandered off into the pond where the hippos were."

"No way!" Austin said, a large smile coming across his face.

"Yes!" Penny said. "Once I noticed she was gone I was worried sick and we finally found her sitting in the pond wearing her mouse ears, her clothes soaking wet, just leaning against a hippo who didn't seemed bothered by her at all."

"Ally never told me that!" Austin laughed. "That's so funny!"

"I don't think Trish even knows that story," Penny said.

"What are some other stories about Ally when she was younger?" Austin asked fondly.

"Hmm..." Penny thought. "Oh, when she was in first grade she came home from school and told me a boy in her class had written her a love letter. I asked her what she was gonna do, she told me she was going to write him back and then she went up to her room. However, the next day Ally came home with a note from the teacher and the note she had given the boy. Instead of writing him a note back, she had corrected all of the grammatical and spelling errors in the note then gave it back to him."

"That sounds like Ally," Austin laughed.

"Oh I've got another one!" Penny said. "When she was in second grade she invited this boy over, I think Elliot was his name."

Austin tensed up at the mention of his name.

"So it was completely obvious that Ally was hardcore crushing on this guy," Penny said. "So he came over and was an absolute sweetheart, but Ally didn't say a word the whole time because she was so nervous. She just made a bunch of random noises whenever her spoke to her."

Austin couldn't hold back his laughter.

"Okay that's really funny," he said.

"I thought so," Penny laughed. "What about you? You must have some great Ally stories."

"You've probably heard them all," Austin shrugged.

"I've heard them from Ally's point of view, though," Penny said. "Not from yours."

"That's a good point, what story do you wanna hear from my point of view?" Austin asked.

"Well, I know when Ally realized she liked you..." Penny said slowly. "But when did you realize you liked her?"

"We were 16..." Austin began, a soft smile on his face as he recalled the fond memory. "I had just started dating this girl named Kira, who just so happened to be my boss' daughter.

"So Kira and I had been dating for a couple weeks when coincidentally, Elliot came to visit Ally. Trish said that he was her first crush, I didn't think anything of it. He was way better looking in real life than in the photo Ally had showed us, and from the second I saw him I felt this sense of competitiveness. Like I had to prove that I was better than him. He and Ally started talking about arts and crafts, so I ended up drawing a hand turkey. I don't even know why, I was just overtaken with this feeling, like all I could think about was how I had to show Ally that I was better than him.

"Ally pushed back a rehearsal we had planned, which was weird because she never did that. She skipped our rehearsal to hang out with Elliot. That really rubbed me the wrong way.

"So that went on for a few days. Ally hanging out with Elliot, me being mad because we couldn't work on a new song, I felt like Ally was too busy for me.

"After the third day of Ally hanging out with Elliot, I found myself in the practice room attempting to make a basket because all Ally and Elliot seemed to be able to talk about was when they would make baskets together. Dez came in and criticized my basket making abilities; to be fair, he had a good point, my so called 'basket' looked like a birds nest.

"Dez asked me if I saw what was going on, he said I liked Ally. I told him that was crazy. Dez asked if it really was and asked if I liked anything about Ally. I told him I liked a lot of stuff about Ally. I liked writing songs with her, I liked that I could talk to her about anything, and I liked her smile, and the way she laughs, and I really liked when we were playing piano and her hand would accidentally touch mine. I got this awesome feeling that nobody, not ever Kira, my own girlfriend, made me feel.

"And then I realized it: I liked Ally. Dez said it was more than that, he said I was in love with her. And of course he turned out to be right. He always is with this kinda stuff.

"I was up all night that night thinking about what Dez had made me realize. Did I really like Ally? What did I want? Did I want to date her? Did I want to be her boyfriend? I came to conclusion that I just had a few mixed feeling, which was only natural when a girl and a guy who are so close. I was happy with Kira and Ally clearly liked Elliot.

"Kira and I were going to a Katy Perry concert that night, so I was waiting at Sonic Boom for her to meet me there. Dez came running into the practice room and said we had to talk about Ally. I said we'd been over this, I said I was happy with Kira and that Ally and I were just friends.

"Dez told me that Ally was gonna tell Elliot that she wanted to be his girlfriend, I freaked out. I said that can't happen, she can't be his girlfriend, he wasn't the right guy for her. Then I ran out of the room, trying to get to Ally as quickly as possible.

"Of course I ran into Kira, I told her I needed to bring Ally her lucky pencil. We hurried off to the restaurant, we got there and saw that it was trivia night. And I of course felt the competitive feeling and urge to show Ally that I was better that Elliot, so Kira and I ended up skipping the concert and playing all of trivia night.

"I still felt this overwhelming urge to beat Elliot. We played every game in the entire restaurant, we even made up games. Elliot eventually quick, which I took that to mean I won. I acted all cocky and asked Ally if she still wanted to be his girlfriend. Kira got mad and left, I chased her out. She said she knew I had feelings for Ally, I said I was confused, she told me to call her when I figure everything out.

"I went back to Sonic Boom to change my clothes because the clothes I was wearing were covered in egg salad and buffalo sauce. After I changed my clothes I sat down at the piano and just played whatever melodies my hands felt like playing, trying to clear my mind.

"And of course Ally showed up, looking as perfect as ever in her red dress. There was a lot of tension in the air, but then she suggested we work on the song and everything felt at ease. And then our hands touched.

"I got this feeling I had never felt before. It was as if the whole world stopped, it was just me and her. My mind went blank, the only thing in my mind was her. All I could think about was how beautiful she was and how badly I wanted to kiss her. I didn't even register that I was leaning in, she was too. But before we could kiss she stopped it, said something about the chorus of the song. I didn't even pay attention to what she played, I was too lost in her eyes. She turned back to look at the keys and I still couldn't take my eyes off of her. And that's when I knew that the feelings I had for her were really real. It wasn't just a 'like like' kind of thing, it was so much deeper than that."

Penny clasped her hands over her heart and held back the urge to let out a loud "aww" as he daughter's boyfriend told her how he realized his feelings for her.

"You really love her, huh?" Penny said softly, a fond smile on her face.

Austin nodded, a sheepish smile on his face.

"She's my everything," he told her.

Penny smiled at the blushing boy sweetly just as the waiter came back to give them their check.

"I've got it, honey!" Penny said as Austin reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet.

"No, let me," Austin said, handing his card to the waiter. "If I can't treat my girlfriend's mother to one meal after she rescued me from what would've been a very sad and lonely Thanksgiving, I don't knew what I can do."

"That's awfully sweet of you, Austin," Penny said, finally agreeing to let Austin pay.

After the waiter brought back Austin's card, the pair left the restaurant and headed back towards Austin's hotel.

"You should get some rest," Penny said once they had arrived at Austin's hotel. "I'm sure you have a busy day tomorrow."

"Yep, gotta be up at five to head to Scotland," Austin said. "Thank you so much, for everything."

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Penny said, pulling him into a hug. "Take care of yourself. I love you."

Austin froze, neither of his girlfriend's parents had ever told him that they loved him.

"I love you, too," Austin said, a soft smile on his face as he hugged her tighter.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	2. Year 1: part 2

The first leg of Austin's tour was finally over. He had a full three weeks off before he went back on tour right after the new year.

But he was excited for a break, nonetheless.

Instead of flying into Miami, he flew into New York City to meet his family so the entire Moon clan flew to Vermont.

Austin's dad was an only child, so this "family vacation" was really just his parents and his grandparents and himself; oh and don't forget his grandma's two yappy dogs that made sure everyone in the cabin was up by six every morning.

The first few days were enjoyable. It was nice to just relax and catch up with family members after working nonstop for so long; but after he had caught up on his sleep and didn't feel like he was about to pass out at any moment, Austin grew antsy.

The fact that he and Ally were finally in not just the same country, but the same time zone, was almost too much for him to take. He longed to see her.

They hadn't been in the same place for over six months, which was longer than they had ever been apart. His body physically ached for her. He needed to see her.

One particular night (well, it wasn't really night, it was after six in the morning because the dogs had already started barking but the family had learned to ignore them so they would just quiet down; but it was still dark outside), Austin couldn't take it any more. He'd waited long enough. He needed to see her as soon as humanly possible.

After telling himself that his parents would get mad but they couldn't punish him because he was an adult now and he could do what he wanted, Austin rolled out of bed, threw some clothes in his backpack, made sure he had his phone charger and wallet, then went out to the kitchen.

He spotted the keys to one of the three rental cars on the counter; after writing a quick note to explain what he's done, he grabbed the keys and left the cabin.

The drive from where he was to Harvard was about three hours, meaning he would get there right around the time when Ally finished the final she had that morning.

He stopped for gas after driving for a half an hour because getting stranded on the road in an unfamiliar state was not part of his plan.

His mom called him after he'd been driving for almost an hour, a frantic tone in her voice.

"Austin Monica Moon, where the hell do you think you're going?" Mimi nearly yelled into the phone. "Do you have any idea how worried we were when we woke up and you weren't here?!"

Austin flinched at his mother's angry tone; she must've been really mad because she hardly ever cursed.

"I'm sorry, mom," Austin apologized. "I really am. But I knew if I had told you what I was doing you would've stopped me from going."

"You're damn right I would've stopped you!" Mimi said. "I want you to drive your ass right back here now, mister."

"No," Austin said simply.

"Excuse me?" Mimi said, taken aback by his answer.

"No," Austin repeated. "I'm an adult now. You're not in charge of me anymore. I've been basically living on my own since I graduated. So if I want to drive three hours to see my girlfriend who I haven't seen in six months then that's what I'm gonna do."

"Do you really want to ruin our family vacation just for some girl?" Mimi sighed.

"Ally is not just some girl," Austin said defensively, feeling anger and protectiveness bubble up inside of him. "You know that. She's the love of my life and if I wanna see her I'm gonna see her. You can't stop me."

"Austin, sweetie, you're 18," Mimi said calmly. "You're too young to even know what being in love is like."

"We are not having this discussion right now," Austin said sternly. "I'll talk to you later, mom. I love you."

And then he hung up the phone aggressively, running his hands through his hair, irritated beyond belief with his mother.

What did she mean he was too young to know what being in love was like? He'd been in love for years! Sure, some might call it puppy love, saying they were only each other's high school sweetheart and that was all they'd ever be to each other.

But Austin and Ally knew that wasn't the case.

They had never been normal high schoolers. They had had to deal with large challenging careers all throughout high school, forcing them to mature much sooner than their peers.

Deciding he shouldn't dwell on his mother's negativity, Austin plugged his phone in and turned on some music (from a playlist that consisted of songs he and Ally sang together, and songs that just reminded him of Ally and/or their relationship.). He smiled when the song they had performed on Christmas almost a year ago came on.

He couldn't believe he was finally going to see her after so many months apart. It almost felt too good to be true.

Once he made it to Massachusetts he stopped to get breakfast and pick up flowers for Ally to go with the birthday present he was also bringing her.

He felt butterflies in his stomach as he pulled onto Harvard's campus. He was anxious and excited and nervous and excited and excited and EXCITED. But also anxious. It's always a little nerve wracking seeing someone again after such a long time apart, even if that someone happens to be the love of your life.

He parked his car in the lot near Ally's dorm, recognizing the name since Ally had mentioned it to him before.

After fixing his hair in the mirror, making she he didn't have anything in his teeth, popping a mint in his mouth, Austin hopped out of the car.

He decided to leave his backpack in the car, figuring Ally would just wanna come back to her dorm after her final. He pulled on his jacket and grabbed the flowers before getting out of his car.

Checking the map outside the dorm building to find the building where Ally was currently taking a final, he saw that is was very close to where he currently was and started off in that direction.

Once he arrived at the building he saw the students dwindling out through the doors, meaning the final had just let out.

Austin felt an entire flock of butterflies in his stomach when he realized that this was it, he was finally gonna see her again. He tried to strike a casual, cool, nonchalant pose by leaning against the lamppost next to the path, but he just looked freezing, which he was.

He looked down at the flowers he had bought, flakes of snow all over them.

And then he saw her.

She wasn't wearing any makeup, she had her glasses on, her cheeks were rosy and her nose was pink from the cold, her hair was brown and wavy, it had gotten darker than usual since she didn't have the constant Miami sun to naturally lighten it; there was a black beanie on her head and she was wearing an oversized, maroon Harvard sweatshirt and leggings paired with thick wool socks and brown boots. She had a large backpack on her back that looked as though it weighed more than her.

She looked as perfect as ever.

Her gaze met his and he felt a smirk form on his face as her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Hi..." he said teasingly. "I'm a little lost here. See, I'm looking for my girlfriend and-"

His snarky greeting was cut off by her lips on his. She dropped her backpack and jumped into his arms, her arms tightly around his neck as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

He stumbled a bit when she jumped on him, but he caught his balance and wrapped his arms around her back tightly, pulling her as close to him as possible, kissing her fiercely.

They finally broke apart, resting their foreheads against each other, both panting from the kiss they had just shared and from the cold weather.

"Wow," Austin said quietly as he set her back on her feet, their bodies still pressed together. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you missed me or something..."

Ally rolled her eyes at him before grabbing his face in her mitten covered hands, pulling him down and kissing him again.

The two Miami natives would've stood there kissing in the snow forever. However, the problem was that they were Miami natives. And it was snowing. And freezing. So they didn't last long.

Austin broke the kiss first, his lips quivering as his whole body shivered.

"Aw baby are you cold?" Ally asked, her voice full of concern.

"Yeah, a little," Austin said. "I'm not exactly used to this kind of weather."

"Let's head to my room before you freeze to death," Ally giggled, picking up her backpack and putting it back on her back before grabbing his hand and leading him to her dorm.

"How are you not cold?" Austin said once they were back at Ally's dorm building, standing by his car so he could get his bag out.

"Well, you have to get pretty used to cold weather when you live in the northeast for a few months," Ally laughed.

"Touché," Austin smirked. "These are for you." he handed her the flowers.

"Austin..." she said sweetly. "You didn't have to do this."

"Oh but I did," Austin smiled as he closed the car door and locked it after he had retrieved his backpack, placing a quick kiss on her forehead. "I haven't been able to buy you flowers and give them to you in person for six months, I couldn't pass up this opportunity!"

"You're ridiculous," Ally said lovingly, shaking her head bemusedly.

"You love it," Austin said, his face millimeters from hers.

"Eh," Ally shrugged, her smile widening.

Austin shook his head and smirked at her fondly before kissing her again.

This kiss was slower than the hot and heavy kiss they had shared just minutes earlier. It was sweet and innocent and tender.

His hands held her waist while her hands went to the back of his neck, her mittens creating all kinds of static in his hair, but that electricity was nothing compared to the sparks that were flying between them as their lips danced together lovingly.

Austin pulled away slowly, their noses nudging against each other as he rested his forehead against hers.

"I missed you," he said softly, his eyes still closed from their kiss. "I missed you so damn much."

"I missed you too," Ally said, rubbing his jaw with her hand. "But it's okay because we're both here now."

"We are, aren't we?" Austin smiled, leaning in to peck her lips one last time. "But can here be inside because I'm freezing my balls off."

"Well we can't have that now, can we?" Ally smirked, taking his hand and dragging him to her dorm.

Austin sighed gratefully when they entered the warm building, finally regaining feeling in his face and hands; said hands were tingling all over, but he couldn't tell if that was from the feeling coming back or simply because just the fact that it was holding Ally's.

"Welcome to my crib," Ally laughed as she led him into her room.

"Ohhh I like it!" Austin said. "Very tastefully decorated. I especially like the amount of me in all your pictures."

"I try," Ally shrugged, causing Austin to laugh.

"Where's your roommate?" Austin asked, noticing that the occupant of the other side of the room was not present.

"She had a final that started almost an hour ago," Ally explained, closing and locking the door. "She won't be back for a while."

"Oh," Austin said, trying to keep his face from looking too excited. "Well, I guess now would be the perfect time to give you your birthday present."

"Austin, you didn't have to-"

"Stop right there," Austin said. "If you're gonna say I didn't have to get my girlfriend a birthday present for her 19th birthday, aka her last birthday as a teenager, than you are wrong. Of course I got you a birthday present! And I worked pretty hard on it and I'm pretty proud of it, so at least pretend to like it."

"I'll try," Ally sighed, a playfully glint in her eye.

Austin grinned and handed her the present that was wrapped in pickle covered wrapping paper.

"They were all out of Austin Moon wrapping paper, so I had to settle for your second favorite thing," Austin said teasingly.

Ally rolled her eyes at him as she ripped away the paper, reveling the gift.

"A scrapbook?" Ally said, all teasing from her tone was gone and replaced with a tone filled with sentiment.

"Kinda," Austin said. "Look inside!"

Ally opened the book to find it was full of pictures of Austin holding her songbook in various locations that he had visited whilst on tour.

"Austin..." Ally said softly, touched by the sweetness of his gift.

"There's notes in there too," Austin interrupted. "You know I'm not the best writer, but I did it anyway. I wrote you a note in every single city we visited. I wrote what you would've liked best, what made me think of you and miss you, what we would've done together if you were there, all of it. So whenever you miss me you can just read one of the letters because I know reading your book has helped me with missing you; that's why it's in all the pictures. Having your book is almost like having you with me."

"I love it," Ally said softly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Austin smiled, taking her chin in his hand and pulling her face close to his. "I love you."

And then he kissed her. It was soft and loving and sweet and Ally could hardly believe it was real. Just an hour ago she had been taking a test, wishing he was there. And now he was there, in her room, and he was kissing her.

Ally tossed Austin's gift to her to the end of the bed and responded to the kiss enthusiastically, pushing Austin back against the bed so he was laying down and she was hovering over him, their lips wrestling fiercely as the kiss heated up, both knew exactly where this was going.

His hands moved to her waist, one moving down to grip her ass, the other moving up her back under her sweatshirt, dancing across her smooth skin.

Their lips broke apart and she raised her hands above her head so he could pull her sweatshirt shirt off of her.

"Hmm... Interesting wardrobe choice," he smirked into her neck as he began kissing down it and across her jawline.

Ally looked down at her shirt to see that she had just so happened to be wearing a shirt from Austin's Full Moon Tour.

She blushed slightly before regaining her confidence and leaning close to his ear.

"Please, we both know you're wearing Ally Dawson's Finally Me Tour underwear," she whispered in a sultry tone, taking his earlobe into her mouth and nipping at it with her blunt teeth.

Austin didn't respond, he did however let out a whimper of a moan, flipping them over so he was now on top.

His mouth attacked her neck, Ally letting out breathy moans as her hands went under his shirt to rest on his abs, pushing up his shirt.

He moved away from her only for a second to pull his shirt over his head and toss it to the floor before going back to her neck, his own hands bringing up her shirt.

They broke apart once more for him to pull her shirt over her head before he leaned in and reconnected their lips in a hard kiss.

Austin kept one hand on her face, drawing her closer, as the other skimmed down the length of her body to her ankles, pulling her thick socks off her feet.

Ally giggled against his lips and she could feel him smiling too. His hand that was on her face moved up through her hair to grab her beanie and throw is across the room, causing her smile to widen against his lips.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and flipped them so she was back on top, Austin's hands holding her hips as his fingers tugged at the waistband of her leggings, aching to pull them off of her.

Ally's hands left his hair and went down to his waist, her hands working to undo his belt as her lips moved down his jaw and across is collarbone.

Austin's eyes rolled back in his head as Ally finally managed to undo his belt, undoing his pants then palming him through his underwear, causing him to let out a throaty moan.

Ally smirked against his neck before grabbing his pants and tugging them down, Austin kicking them off and discarding them on the ground.

Austin hooked his fingers in the waistband of her leggings and tugged them down her long legs, leaving them both is just their underwear.

Flipping them yet again so he was back on top, Austin kissed down Ally's neck, across her collarbone, and down across her cleavage, one hand on her back unclasping her bra, his other hand was in between her legs as his fingers rubbed her through her wet panties.

Just as Austin had pushed her underwear, there was a loud knock at the door.

Austin and Ally both froze.

"Ally?" Ally's roommate's, Gabby, voice called out. "Why did you lock the door? You know I don't take my keys with me when I go to class."

"Shit," Ally muttered, rolling out from under Austin, grabbing Gabby's bathrobe off from her bed and wrapping herself in it.

Ally unlocked the door and cracked the door slightly so that Gabby could only see half of her face, let alone the rest of the room.

"What are you doing?" Gabby asked, confused. "Let me in. I'm exhausted."

"Gabby, can you please take a nap in Hailey's room?" Ally whispered. "Or go to the library or something. Just give me like... I don't know... An hour of privacy? I'm kinda busy in here..."

"Why are you wearing my robe?" Gabby asked. "What are you- OH! I'm so sorry, Ally! Take all the time you need. I'll go hang in Hailey's room. You two have fun!"

Ally quickly shut the door and leaned her back against it, letting out a sigh of relief.

"That was close," she said.

"Yeah it was," Austin said, standing up from his spot on the bed and walking towards her.

"What are you doing?" Ally asked quietly, he was now standing right in front of her, their bodies close.

Austin didn't answer. He simply smirked, placing his hands on her neck, moving them down to her shoulders to push the fluffy robe off of her.

Before Ally could even register what was happening, Austin had dropped to his knees in front of her, his fingers tugging her underwear down her silky legs.

Without warning, Austin leaned forward and licked at her center, causing Ally to throw her head back against the door and moan loudly.

He grabbed her ankle and threw it over his shoulder to give him better access.

Ally's moans increased, she wondered how on earth she had gone so long without this.

Suddenly, Austin's phone started to ring.

Glancing over at the spot on the floor where his phone had fallen out of his pants pocket, his eyes widened when he saw that it was his mother, wanting to FaceTime.

Austin pulled his mouth away from Ally, she whimpered at his departure.

"My mom is FaceTiming me!" he panicked.

"Just ignore it." Ally suggested.

"I can't!" Austin said. "She's pissed at me because I may or may not have come here without telling anyone..."

"Austin Monica Moon!" Ally scolded. "You left a family vacation just to come here to get some!"

"You weren't mad about it thirty seconds ago!" Austin reminded her.

"Just answer it!" Ally said.

"Okay, okay, but be quiet!" Austin said, sliding his finger across his phone to answer the call.

"Hey Austin!" Mimi said, sounding way too perky, almost as if she knew what she was interrupting.

"Hi mom!" Austin said, trying to act as causal as possible, trying to look anywhere but at Ally sitting on her bed completely naked.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Mimi asked innocently.

"Oh! Well... Umm... You see..." Austin stuttered. "It's actually really hot in Massachusetts!"

"Really?" Mimi asked, faking interest.

"Yep!" Austin said. "Ya know... Global warming!"

"Oh, well what happened to your hair?"

"There was this squirrel!"

"Oh no!"

"And it just attacked my head!"

"Poor baby!"

"But I survived!"

"You sure did."

"Yup."

"So how was your drive down?"

"Pretty good." Austin said. "It was long but it was worth it."

Ally had decided to have some fun of her own. She reached out to grab Austin's hand, pulling him towards her.

"Did you eat anything?"

"Yeah, I sure did," Austin nodded, Ally smirked as she slowly pulled down his underwear before she dropped her head to take him into her mouth.

Austin held back a gasp, trying to keep his cool. Ally was sucking him while he was not just talking to, but factimeing his mother. Someone shoot him right now.

"So where's Ally?" Mimi asked.

"She's... Uh... She's..." Austin stuttered, unable to concentrate. "She's in class! Yeah! I got here, and.. Uh... She wasn't in class. So we hung out, but then she had to go to class... So... Now I'm just waiting for her to get back."

"Oh, well tell her I said hi!" Mimi said.

"Will do!" Austin said quickly. "I'm sorry mom, but I actually have to go. My phone is about to die."

"Okay sweetie! Have fun! I love you!"

"Yeah, yeah, love you too." Austin said quickly before hanging up his phone, dropping it on the floor and letting out a low moan.

Ally pulled away to smile up at him.

"What?" she asked innocently.

Austin didn't reply. He did however tackle her onto the bed.

Ally wasn't complaining.

...

"Do you have to go now?" Ally said into his chest as she hugged him tightly. "You can stay overnight, I can have Gabby sleep in someone else's room."

"Nah, I should get going," Austin said. "My mom would be really mad if I didn't come back tonight."

Ally simply pouted.

"Hey..." Austin said, lifting her chin with his hand to look her in the eyes. "It's only for a few days. Before we know it we'll both be back in Miami for Christmas."

"You're right," Ally sighed.

Austin leaned in to press a sweet kiss on her lips.

"I love you," he told her.

"I love you too," she said.

And then he was off.

She wished knowing it was only gonna be a few days would make the distance less painful; it didn't.

...

The holidays came and went faster than either of them liked.

Christmas and New Years was like this perfect little bubble where they didn't have to worry about anything, they could just be together.

But obviously, the holidays couldn't last forever.

Ally went back to school and Austin went back on tour, touring the states this time.

It felt like a breather being in the same country for so long even though they weren't in the same place.

Austin's tour was lasting longer than Ally was in school, his last show was a week after she finished her classes, but he managed to convince Jimmy to give him a day off on Ally's last day of classes when they would just so happen to be in the northeast.

Austin called Ally and told her he had a surprise for her. She got exited. He told her he couldn't tell her what it was until after she was done with her classes.

So when Ally exited her final class of her freshman year, seeing Austin standing outside the building was hardly surprising.

"What's my surprise? What's my surprise?" Ally asked excitedly.

"What? No kiss hello?" Austin pouted.

She leaned in to quickly kiss him on the lips.

"Now tell me my surprise!" Ally said, bouncing up and down on her feet.

"Well, your boyfriend, the one and only Austin Moon..." Austin said slowly. "Got two tickets and backstage passes for Beyoncé's show tonight!"

You would've guessed Ally had just been told she had won the lottery.

After getting ready, the couple went to the concert. After the show they went backstage to meet Beyoncé herself; and when they did they all discussed the possibility of a musical collaboration in the future.

Needless to say, Ally had thanked Austin very well once they were back in her room.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	3. Year 2: part 1

"You sure you want Chinese?" Ally asked. "I mean, you're going to be touring the Far East for the next few months and you'll get to try all the real stuff instead of the cheep American replicas."

"Yeah, because this will probably be the last time I'll enjoy American Chinese food, because eating all that authentic stuff will probably turn me into a Chinese food snob," Austin smirked. "Plus, it reminds me of our first all nighter when we wrote our first song together."

"Aww, I can't argue with that," Ally smiled up at him.

"Good. Chinese it is then," Austin grinned down at her, taking her chin in his hand and planting a quick kiss on her lips.

It was their last day together. Ally went back to school the next day and Austin began touring Asia just a few weeks after.

Their summer home together had been nothing short of perfect. They spent all day every day together, doing whatever it was they felt like doing that particular day. They had gone to the beach, many museums, the zoo, even cloud watching!

They had also gone back to the music factory to help Trish, and Dez too. All four of them resumed their posts and started teaching lessons again.

It felt almost surreal for all of them to be back in the same place for a long period of time. Almost as if it was a dream. A really amazing dream that just so happened to be their reality.

Well, their reality until tomorrow.

Ally shook her head to clear her mind of all those saddening thoughts, focusing her attention back in actual reality.

Actual reality where she was holding hands with Austin as they made their way to their favorite Chinese place.

After they had ordered their favorite dishes from the menu and received their food, they headed back to Austin's car and drove to one of their favorite picnic spots.

Said picnic spot was a grassy clearing in a local park that overlooked the ocean. It was one of their favorite spots to come on picnics or cloud watching dates, just any nice day they felt like spending outside really.

Ally laid out the blanket they had brought while Austin removed all their cartons of food from the brown paper bag.

They dug into their food, falling into a comfortable, familiar conversation.

"You know..." Austin spoke up after swallowing a particularly large mouthful of food. "Chinese food is like the least romantic of all foods."

"How?" Ally asked.

"Because there's no way to be cute or sexy when you're trying to feed someone noodles with chop sticks," Austin laughed.

"Okay, I guess that is true," Ally agreed. "But I also am gonna take that as a challenge; open up, mister."

"Well this certainly is a change for once," Austin smirked wolfishly, Ally chose to ignore his sexual comment.

She twirled the chopsticks around in the noodles before pulling them out and shoving them in his face.

"Mmmm..." Austin laughed as he slurped up the noodles. "Delicious."

"Let's move onto fortune cookies," Ally laughed.

They each took a cookie out of the bag and ripped it from its packaging before cracking the cookie over to get their fortune.

"Mine says 'reorganization is crucial at this time'," Ally said. "That's actually pretty accurate; I'll have to reorganize all my stuff when I get back to my dorm. What does yours say?"

"Mine says..." Austin said slowly. "'You will be kissed by a beautiful girl', well would ya look at that! Also pretty accurate!"

"You're ridicules," Ally said, rolling her eyes.

"You know you love me," Austin smiled, moving closer to her.

"Do I know that?" Ally said, leaning in even closer to his face. "Yes, yes I do."

Austin's smile widened before he pressed his lips to hers, his hand holding the back of her head, pulling her closer.

She smiled into the kiss, placing her hands on either side of his jaw.

He was the first to pull away, resting his forehead against hers as he did.

"I'm really gonna miss you," Austin whispered.

"I know," Ally replied, also whispering. "This summer has felt like something out of a dream it's been so perfect, and now we have to go our separate ways again. I kinda wish we could just stay here forever."

Austin sighed, pulling his head away from Ally's and wrapping his arms around her as he laid down on the blanket, pulling her close to him as she snuggled into his chest.

"Me too, Ally," Austin said quietly, kissing her forehead. "Me too."

...

Ally settled into her sophomore year easier than her freshman year. She and Austin knew what they were getting into this time, so the separation wasn't as difficult, but it was just as painful.

Despite the pain they felt, they fell back into their old long distance habits. They face timed, they spent long hours on the phone together, they constantly texted, they fell back into their old routines of their day to day lives without each other.

Things got increasingly more difficult when Austin left for tour.

The twelve hour time difference between them made communication even harder than it had been during his last tour.

"Hey!" Austin answered his phone. "How was class?"

"It was good!" Ally said. "I did well on my physics test, I tried this new Thai place near campus for dinner, and I just finished my paper for my English class; all in all I'd say it was a pretty successful day."

"I would say that's an accurate statement," Austin laughed as he brushed his teeth.

"So how did you sleep?" Ally asked, knowing he had just woken up, even though she herself was about to go to bed.

"Pretty good actually," Austin said after he had spit out his mouth full of toothpaste. "The beds in this hotel are crazy soft, and I had this dream last night that you and I were swimming in this giant bowl of barbecue sauce."

"Sounds... Interesting," Ally laughed, letting out a yawn.

"Oh, Ally I'm really sorry," Austin said quickly. "I gotta go. I'm super late for rehearsals. I'll call you tonight."

"Okay," Ally said. "I love y-"

But then the line was dead.

He hung up.

He hung up before she even finished her sentence.

More importantly, he hung up without saying I love you.

Ally couldn't even remember the last time they ended a phone call without saying I love you. It had to have been back before they had even gotten back together. Even when they were living in the same city they always ended phone calls with 'love you!'.

" _Oh well_ ," she thought. " _It's probably just a one time thing. He was running late. It's nothing_."

She knew he still loved her even though he didn't say I love you at the end of one phone call.

But after that phone call, their calls started to become sparser.

He did call later that night, but she was already in class.

She did call when she got out of class, but he was already asleep.

" _It's only temporary_ ," they both thought constantly. " _It won't be like this forever_."

Things seemed to be going fine for the most part, until one particular fall day in late November.

November 29th to be exact.

Austin was feeling very homesick. He had just missed Thanksgiving and was just ready to finish this leg of the tour so he could get home for Christmas.

He only had three shows left after that night.

All day he had felt as though something was off.

He felt as though he was forgetting something.

And he was.

His girlfriend's 20th birthday to be exact.

But he didn't realize it until her birthday had already passed; in both China and the United States.

He couldn't fall asleep on the last night of November. He lie awake in bed, playing random games on his phone.

And then the clock hit midnight. And his phone calendar changed.

To December.

It was December.

Meaning November was over.

Meaning he had completely forgotten about Ally's birthday.

"No," Austin said, rolling out of bed frantically. "No, no, no, no, NO!"

Austin immediately went to his favorites in his phone and pressed Ally's contact.

"C'mon, c'mon..." Austin said, bouncing up and down on his feet. "Pick up. Please, pick up."

She didn't pick up.

Austin let out a frustrated sigh.

It was noon where she was, she was probably either eating lunch or still in class.

Austin decided against calling her over and over until she picked up, instead choosing to type her a very long and apologetic text message. He said that he was so sorry and promised to make it up to her in any way she wanted. He also said that he loved her more than anything in the world and that he didn't even deserve her love in return because he does dumb things like forget his own girlfriend's birthday. He ended the text by making a joke about her being a cougar because she was in her twenties and how dare she be dating a measly teenager.

...

Austin couldn't be more excited to be home for Christmas. Christmas was his very favorite time of year and he was counting down the days excitedly.

Well, counting down the days until Ally returned.

His advent calendar had quickly become a countdown device to keep track of how many days left he had until he saw his girlfriend again.

The days felt as though they were twice as long as they normally were.

He just wanted to see her, be near her, hold her, kiss her, never let her go.

And then finally, that day came.

It was exactly one week before Christmas and you would've thought Austin was convinced it was already Christmas morning.

He woke up long before the sun did, skipping down the stairs to make himself some pancakes.

"Morning Austin," Mimi yawned as she entered the kitchen, her husband right behind her, also yawning.

"Good morning!" Austin said cheerfully. "It's a beautiful day! Don't you think it's a beautiful day? I think it's a beautiful day!"

"I can't even remember the last time I saw you up this early in the morning," Mike laughed. "And I certainly can't recall a time when you've been this happy about being up so early."

"What can I say?" Austin smiled. "I'm excited. I've been counting down to this day for months and I know it's gonna be amazing, so I couldn't wait to get it started."

Austin finished his pancakes, rinsed his dish, then placed it in the dishwasher (something he always left for his mother or father to do).

He then plated the rest of the pancakes and poured two cups of coffee.

"Here you go, mom and dad!" Austin said happily. "Homemade pancakes with coffee. Dad, I made sure to put extra sugar in yours, and mom, I made sure to put almond milk in yours."

"Thank you, Austin," Mimi smiled. "This is awfully nice of you."

"Anything to make you two happy!" Austin beamed, kissing each of his parents cheeks. "Well, I've gotta go shower. Gotta look my best today."

And with that, Austin skipped, actually skipped, out of the kitchen.

"Ally?" Mike asked.

"Ally," Mimi nodded.

Austin took a leisurely shower, belting out any song that came to his mind. And strangely enough, all the songs that came to his mind were songs he had once sung to one Ally Dawson.

After his shower, Austin stood in his closet, stumped about what to wear.

It wasn't exactly cold out, but it wasn't exactly warm; he decided to go with a red v-neck because it was seasonably festive and he knew for a fact that Ally loved when he wore red.

He threw on a pair of blue jeans and red high tops, lastly throwing on his black leather jacket because it was pretty chilly outside for Miami.

Once he was dressed, he went to fix his hair (it had to look PERFECT) and brush his teeth (he chose to brush them three times, more than he ever brushed them before he went to the dentist), then he was ready to go.

"You're leaving already?" Mimi said.

"Yeah," Austin responded excitedly. "I'm gonna stop to pick up some flowers then meet Mr. Dawson at the airport."

"Have fun!" Mimi smiled.

Austin gave his mom one last excited smile before rushing out the front door.

He got in his car and drove to the grocery store to pick up some flowers for Ally.

He decided to get a bouquet of lilies, because he knew they were one of her favorite flowers and he thought getting roses would seem to cliché.

After paying for the flowers (and buying a brand new box of condoms for obvious reasons), Austin got back in his car and began his journey to the airport.

It was always a nightmare trying to get to the airport, but the traffic seemed to be on steroids during the holiday season.

He finally made it into the parking lot after sitting in nearly an hour of traffic.

After parking his car in the parking garage, Austin grabbed the flowers and headed into the airport, a skip in his step.

He spotted Lester sitting at the arrival gate, playing on his phone to pass the time.

"Hi Mr. Dawson!" Austin said happily as he approached him. "How are you? I'm great! It's such a nice day! Don't you think it's a nice day? I'm really excited! Are you really excited? Because I'm REALLY excited!"

"Hello Austin," Lester chuckled. "Yes, I am excited. But I think you may be just a tad bit more excited than me."

"Is it that noticeable?" Austin said, still bouncing on his feet.

"A little," Lester smiled. "Oh look, here she is!"

Austin turned his head quickly, immediately spotting the brown curls he had been longing to see for months.

"ALLY- wait, Penny?" Austin said, confused.

"Hi Austin!" Penny said, hugging Austin and then her ex husband.

"Wait, I thought you meant Ally had gotten in?" Austin asked Lester.

"Oh no," Lester said. "Did I not tell you? Penny's flight got in in the morning and Ally's flight gets in later tonight. The fun part is that Ally doesn't know Penny is here, it's a surprise!"

"She does love surprises," Austin nodded.

"Yeah, so we can go get some food and come back before Ally's flight gets here," Lester said.

"No!" Austin said quickly. "I'm not leaving unless it's with Ally."

"Austin, sweetie, you do realize her flight doesn't get in for like another four hours, right?" Penny said slowly.

"I know," Austin said. "But you guys go eat somewhere! Really! I'll just hang here and keep our spot."

"You sure?" Lester said.

"Yes!" Austin smiled. "Go!"

Lester and Penny shrugged then went to get food from somewhere that wasn't in the airport.

Austin pulled Ally's songbook out of his backpack. He decided to pass the time by reading, which he never did. But he'd make an acceptation for Ally.

He read through all the entries that were about their relationship (he had bookmarked all the pages); from when she first realized she liked him, to the entries she wrote while they were on her tour together.

He spent hours just reading her entries, smiling as memories flooding his head. He felt even more excited to see her, if that was even possible.

Before he even knew it, Lester and Penny returned and they called Ally's flight over the loud speaker, saying it had just landed.

"She's here, she's here, she's here!" Austin said excitedly, bouncing up and down on his feet.

Lester and Penny smiled at Austin's enthusiasm.

Austin stood on the tips of his toes, peering over the crowd in attempt to spot Ally.

"I SEE HER!" Austin yelled excitedly, full on jumping up and down now.

She was wearing a blue oversized sweater over black leggings, gym shoes on her feet and her hair was up in a messy bun.

Her eyes lit up when her eyes landed on them waving at her excitedly.

"Mom!" Ally said excitedly. "Dad!"

Ally ran to her parents and embraced them tightly at the same time, Austin slightly offended that she currently wasn't in his arms.

"I didn't know you were coming home!" Ally said, looking up at her mother.

"I wanted to surprise you!" Penny said, kissing her daughter's forehead.

Ally wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly, burying her face in her shoulder.

Austin had stopped bouncing now, very upset that Ally had yet to acknowledge him.

Ally let go of her mother and went to hug her father tightly.

"Hi daddy," Ally whispered.

"Hi honey," Lester smiled, tears in his eyes as he held his daughter in his arms after so long.

"I missed you," Ally said, a childish tone in her voice.

"I missed you too, sweetheart," Lester said, kissing the top of her head.

Ally pulled away from Lester and turned to face Austin, a soft smirk on her face.

"What the hell, Moon?" Ally smirked, walking closer to Austin. "Did you not miss me at all?"

Austin returned her smirk, leaning down to place his lips on hers.

The kiss was slow and passionate, their smirks lazily dancing together. Her hands tangled themselves in his hair while his grabbed her waist, pulling her closer.

"I missed you," Ally whispered as they broke away, her nose brushing against his.

"I missed you more," Austin said, his hands gripping her hips tightly.

"Yeah right," Ally smirked.

Austin smiled widely, pressing one last quick kiss to her lips before pulling her into his arms in a fierce hug, holding her close.

He sighed contently, feeling a weight lifted off of him that he didn't even realize was there as he held her in his arms for the first time in what felt like forever.

Her arms were around his neck, her face buried in his chest. She was holding onto him for dear life. As if he would disappear if she let go.

He was the first to pull away, kissing her lips one last time before taking her hand in his as they all made their way off to baggage claim.

...

"Austin! You can't just carry around mistletoe as an excuse for us to make out constantly!"

"Why not?" Austin pouted. "That's what it was invented for!"

"You're taking advantage of it!" Ally laughed.

Austin just rolled his eyes before dipping his head to resume kissing her neck.

"Austin! We're getting off task!"

"Oh, right, yes," Austin said. "Present exchange."

It was Christmas Eve. The couple was at Austin's house, sitting on his back porch.

They decided to celebrate Christmas together the day before since they would both be with their families all day on the actual holiday.

"Okay, I wanna go first!" Austin said excitedly.

He pulled out a little box that had a red bow on it.

Ally opened the box, gasping slightly.

It was a dainty silver necklace that had a small Chinese symbol where the two sides of the chain connected together.

"Austin..." Ally said softly. "It's beautiful."

"I got it in China." Austin said. "It's the Chinese symbol for love. I felt like it was appropriate because I love you and you are my love."

Ally smiled, her eyes filling with tears.

"Here, let me put it on you," Austin said, taking the necklace from the box and placing it around Ally's neck.

"I love it," Ally whispered. "And I love you."

Austin grinned before placing his lips on hers in a sweet kiss.

"I love you too," he whispered after they pulled apart. "Now it's my turn to open my present!"

Ally pulled out the present anxiously.

She had completely forgotten to get Austin something. She didn't even realize it until she was back in Miami, so she did what any normal person would do and made some crappy gift that she would hopefully be able to pass off as sentimental.

Her gift was lame. So lame. But apparently the nice wrapping had fooled Austin because he was ripping it off excitedly.

"I didn't have time to get a glass bottle..." Ally said quickly as Austin pulled out her gift.

"A plastic baggie full of sand?" Austin said, puzzled.

"It's from the other day when we went to the beach!" Ally explained, making up sentimental value off the top of her head. "It was the first time we had gone to the beach together in so long, and I figured you love the beach and we had a nice time that night so now you can remember it and have a piece of it with you forever."

"Ally..." Austin said, stunned. "I don't know what to say..."

Ally gulped nervously.

"This is..." Austin said. "The most thoughtful gift anyone has even gotten me. I love it."

Ally let out a heavy sigh, relived that he wasn't mad.

" _That was a close one_ ," she thought to herself.

...

It was Ally's last night in Miami. Her flight back to school was in less than 12 hours.

She was at Austin's house, Austin had refused to let her out of his sight all day; he was having a very hard time dealing with the fact that they were about to separate again.

Which is why they were currently making out in his bed.

Granted, Austin was doing most of the work. She was on top of him as their lips moved against each other sloppily and lazily. Her hands were pressed against his chest, his hands wandered across her body, one hand on her ass, the other on her upper thigh.

"Austin..." Ally said airily as she pulled her mouth away from his, his lips moving down her neck.

"Mmm..." Austin hummed blissfully as he kissed across her jaw and neck.

"We need to talk," Ally said firmly.

"About what?" Austin smirked cheekily against her neck. "You wanna switch so you're on the bottom?"

"Austin, I'm serious," Ally said, pulling away from him.

Austin laid there, stunned. His lips were still puckered as he stared at her sitting at the edge of his bed (no longer on top of him), completely perplexed.

"What do we have to talk about?" Austin asked softly, sitting up and moving so he was seated right next to her on the edge of his bed, their legs touching and arms brushing.

Ally looked down at the ground nervously.

"Us," she said quietly, almost as if it pained her to say it.

"What about us?" Austin asked, growing anxious.

Ally was silent for a few long moments.

"I think you know..." Ally said softly, her voice breaking off at the end.

"No, I don't know," Austin said stubbornly. "I thought we were fine! We ARE fine! Aren't we?"

"Look..." Ally sighed. "You know I love you, right?"

Austin nodded.

"And you know that our relationship is the best thing that's ever happened to me, right?" Ally said.

Austin nodded again.

"But Austin..." Ally said. "It's just not working anymore."

"What?!" Austin said. "What are you talking about? Of course it's working! I love you, you love me, we love each other! What more do we need?"

"I know we love each other!" Ally said. "But just... I feel like this relationship has become more of a burden than anything else."

"What do you mean?" Austin asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I mean we're putting too much effort in and not getting enough out of it," Ally said. "Just look at us, Austin! We haven't seen each other in months! We've tried to keep in touch the best we can but its just getting to be too much. It's becoming more of a chore than us actually wanting to maintain our relationship."

"What are you saying?" Austin asked quietly, his eyes filling with tears.

"I'm saying I think we should take a break," Ally said softly.

"What?!" Austin said. "No! Why would we- I just- I don't want to!"

"We're hardly even in a relationship anymore!" Ally said. "It's not like it used to be. We only see each other a few times a year, who in their right mind would call that a good relationship?"

"Me!" Austin said. "Look, Ally... I know this past year has sucked. But we can't just give up!"

"What's even the point of continuing this though?" Ally asked. "What's the point of putting ourselves through the suffering and the irritation? What is the end result?"

Austin fell silent. He wasn't even sure how to answer that question anymore.

His ideal end result would be the two of them getting married and starting a family together, but over time he had come to realize how unrealistic that goal had become.

She was at school. He was on tour. She was right. This wasn't the way a relationship was supposed to be. Why were they still hanging on? Why didn't they just let go before they dug themselves into an even deeper rut?

"Ally..." Austin said, tears sliding down his cheeks, his voice breaking. "I love you."

"And I love you!" Ally said, gripping his arm. "But it's not fair to either one of us to continue this when we really aren't gaining anything but frustration and stress from it."

The two fell silent.

"Did we just break up?" Austin asked quietly.

"No!" Ally said. "We're not broken up, per say. We're just... On a break."

"How is that different?" Austin asked.

"A break means we both know we have feelings for each other and we still want to be together, we just can't because at this current time because it is inconvenient to the rest of our lives," Ally said. "A break up would mean that we both decided that we no longer wanted to be together at all and gave it up all together."

"But like..." Austin said. "How would it change how we act?"

"I don't know..." Ally said softly. "I just know that what we're currently doing isn't working and is causing us more stress than happiness. So let's just take a break for a while."

Austin didn't say anything for a full minute.

"Okay," he finally spoke up, his voice was quiet. "If that's what you really want and think will help us in the long run, we'll do it. We'll take a break."

Ally turned her head to look at him. His eyes were red and puffy, still swimming with tears. He looked absolutely miserable.

She took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers and resting her head on his shoulder. He sighed and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"I love you," Ally said softly.

"I love you, too," Austin whispered.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	4. Year 2: part 2

Ally left soon after that conversation, saying she had to get back to her house to finish packing.

It was the first time in a long time he didn't kiss her goodnight. He couldn't even remember that last time that had happened.

He debated going to the airport to see her off in the morning, wondering if it would be awkward.

But then he realized that this was the last time he was gonna see her for a long time, so he decided that they would power through the awkwardness.

The only reason he worried about it being awkward was because he wasn't sure how they were supposed to act. They had been a couple for so long, he had forgotten how to act around her when they weren't dating.

Like how long was her allowed to hug her? Was he allowed to kiss her? These were serious questions!

Shoving all these questions to the back of his mind, Austin quickly got ready and left for the airport.

He got there and spotted Ally with Lester and Penny, Trish and Dez had come to see her off as well.

He joined the group quietly, not wanting to make a big deal about his presence.

"I better go," Ally said. "My flight leaves in like thirty minutes."

Ally proceeded to say goodbye to each of her parents and then Trish and Dez, leaving Austin for the last.

She stood in front of him after she had said goodbye to everyone else, smiling up at him sympathetically.

"So am I allowed to kiss you goodbye or..." Austin asked quietly so she was the only one who could hear him.

Ally's smile softened before she leaned up and pressed a feather light kiss on his lips before hugging him.

Austin sighed into the hug, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her hair.

Ally pulled away first, looking back up at him sadly.

"Have a safe flight," Austin whispered.

"Thanks," Ally said.

"I love you," Austin said, his voice low.

"I love you, too," she nodded.

And before Austin could even stop himself he had leaned in and kissed her cheek.

Ally placed her hand on his cheek and stroked his face with her thumb, before picking up all her bags and heading towards security.

"What was that?" Trish asked as they made their way out of the airport, Lester and Penny ahead of the trio of friends. "Why didn't you guys shove your tongues down each other's throat? Not that I'm complaining, I'm just wondering because you two always do that."

Austin glanced over at Lester and Penny, who were far enough ahead of them that they wouldn't hear him.

"We... Umm..." Austin said softly, his hand going to the back of his neck.

Trish and Dez's faces fell, concern riddling their expressions.

"We decided to take a break," Austin sighed.

"Oh my god!" Trish gasped.

"Seriously?" Dez said, shocked.

Austin nodded, putting his head down.

"I'm so sorry, Austin," Trish said, placing a hand on his arm.

"It's for the best," Austin said, feeling a lump in his throat. "I'm okay."

"No you're not," Dez said softly, wrapping an arm around his best friend, tears beginning to stream down his face slowly as Dez consoled him.

"C'mon," Trish said, taking Austin's hand in one of her own. "Let's go back to your place, Austin."

Trish was going to suggest they go to the music factory, but she figured it would remind him too much of Ally.

They made their way back to the parking garage, spotting Trish's car quickly.

Austin sat in the backseat the whole way back to his house, staring out the window as tears continued to slide down his face.

They made it back to Austin's house, Austin opening the door with his key before walking inside and flopping down onto the couch in the living room, burying his face in a pillow.

Trish and Dez exchanged looks of uncertainty before walking around the couch and sitting down at each end, Austin's head (face still buried in the pillow) in Trish's lap and his legs on Dez's lap.

The three friends spent a long while in that position, nobody saying anything as Trish and Dez consoled Austin, who was crying into the pillow; Dez rubbing his hands up and down his calves while Trish ran her fingers through his hair in attempt to soothe him.

Eventually, Austin took his face out of the pillow and laid the side of his face on it after his cries slowed down, his eyes red and puffy and his nose runny.

Mike and Mimi arrived home not long after, surprised to see their grown son lying across his two best friends on their couch.

"What happened?" Mimi asked, concerned.

"Ally said they should take a break," Dez whispered to Mike and Mimi.

At the sound of her name and hearing the word break again, Austin hid his face in the pillow as more tears began flowing.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry," Mimi said, rubbing Austin's back.

"That's rough, buddy," Mike said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know you really liked her."

"No," Austin muttered stubbornly, his voice muffled by the pillow. "I LOVED her. I was in love with her. I'm STILL in love with her. I love her and she loves me."

"We know, honey," Mimi said softly.

"No you don't," Austin said, sitting up on the couch before standing up. "None of you understand."

"Austin-" Trish said softly, reaching out to place a hand on his arm only to have him jerk it away.

"I'm going upstairs," Austin mumbled, before heading up the stairs and slamming his bedroom door.

"He's never like this," Mimi said. "The only time he's ever been like this is when Ally was dating that country guy."

"And even if he was like this, Ally could always calm him down," Mike said.

"Let's just leave him be for a bit," Dez said. "We can check on him later."

"You two are welcome to stay," Mimi said. "We know how much he needs you both right now."

"He doesn't need us," Trish said. "All he needs is Ally."

...

"Hey!" Ally said happily as she answered her phone. "You called at a great time, I just finished unpacking."

"Are you aware of the fact that you broke Austin Moon?" Trish said.

"Is he that upset?" Ally asked.

"Well, let's see..." Trish said. "He cried all the way home from the airport, laid on his couch and cried into a pillow for hours, then his parents got home and tried to talk to him, which is when he ran upstairs, slammed his door, and locked himself in his room and he hasn't come out since."

"Really?" Ally said softly.

"He's miserable, Ally," Trish said. "I don't think you realize that you are his entire world. You are the only thing that brings him true happiness. Nothing else matters to him without you. Hell, he gave up his lifelong dream just so he could still be with you! And now you're gonna break his heart and leave him behind after all he's done is love you unconditionally?"

"I can't believe you're siding with him," Ally said. "I've been your best friend you're whole life and now you're siding with him!"

"What are you even saying?" Trish said. "You guys aren't legitimately broken up, nobody is taking sides! There are no sides to take! I just think you're being a little insensitive by acting as though you're totally okay with everything while Austin is back here heartbroken."

"It was for the best, Trish," Ally said. "I could feel things falling apart, and I just wanted to give ourselves a break. I knew he would take it like this, that's why I put it off for so long. And believe me, I didn't want to do it! But I knew it's what I had to do if I wanted to save our relationship."

"I believe you," Trish said. "I know how you feel about him and that you wouldn't do something like this unless you had a really good reason to."

"Good," Ally sighed. "I don't want this to be the end of all of our friendships, that would suck."

"Yeah it would," Trish chuckled.

"Well, I have to go," Ally said. "I've got an early class tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll let you go," Trish said. "Good luck with this semester!"

"Thanks," Ally smiled.

...

"I don't think he's ever gonna come out of there," Dez sighed, resting his head against Trish's, which was laying on his shoulder.

"He has to come out at some point," Trish yawned. "He can't just spend the rest of his life locked in his room without food or water or a bathroom."

Trish and Dez eventually fell asleep on the couch, Austin never did come down.

Well, that was until the next morning.

It was almost noon when Trish and Dez were awoken by the sound of Austin coming down the stairs.

He looked awful.

His eyes were red and puffy, his face was blotchy, he had huge dark circles under his eyes that indicated that he had not slept at all; his hair was matted and tangled, he had changed into a pair of pajama pants, but was wearing the same shirt had had worn the day before.

"Hey buddy," Dez said softly. "How ya doing?"

"Terrible," Austin said, flopping down into the recliner next to the couch.

"C'mon Austin..." Trish said. "It was for the best! It's not like anything has changed really, even if you hadn't taken a break she'd still be gone."

"I don't care," Austin pouted, crossing him arms like an upset child. "I'm still sad."

"Well, I hate to break it to you bud, but your moping time is up," Dez said, standing up from the couch.

"I'll mope as long as a want to, thank you very much." Austin said stubbornly.

"No you won't," Trish said. "You have a meeting with Jimmy today where you guys plan the rest of your tour, which starts next week in case you don't remember."

"You two didn't even break up!" Dez said. "You just decided to take a break, there's a difference. Break ups have a longer designated moping time, breaks have a moping time of 24 hours and you've exceeded it."

"Fine," Austin sighed. "I'll go to the meeting, but I won't be happy about it."

Austin continued to mope around as Dez and Trish made him presentable.

Dez spoon feed him cereal, since he refused to eat on his own.

Then came the hard part: getting him to shower.

"No!" Austin said stubbornly.

"Austin, you smell like a barnyard," Trish said. "GO TAKE A SHOWER."

"No," Austin repeated. "I only take showers with Ally."

"Okay, one: gross," Trish said. "And two, that's not true. Are you trying to say you didn't shower at all between the time Ally went back to school and when she got back to Miami a few weeks ago?"

"Well, no..." Austin said slowly.

"Just take a damn shower!" Dez said, pushing him into the bathroom. "You can think about Ally all you want, we don't even care what you do while you think about her! Just cleanse yourself, for everyone's sake!"

"FINE!" Austin said, hopping into the shower, much to Trish and Dez's relief.

After Austin got out of the shower, Trish and Dez had already picked out an outfit for him.

"No, I can't wear that shirt," Austin said, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Trish asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong with it?" Dez asked.

"I wore it when me and Ally went to Disney last summer!" Austin said, flopping onto his bed dramatically.

"Austin, you can't just refuse to wear any shirt you've ever worn in Ally's presence," Trish said dryly.

"Yeah, you wouldn't have any shirts to wear," Dez said. "And you can't go to this meeting shirtless."

"Well too bad," Austin said, crossing his arms. "I'm not wearing any shirt I've ever worn on a date with Ally."

"You know what, fine!" Dez grumbled, pulling his own shirt over his head. "Here! Wear this! I can assure you it's never been worn on a date with Ally Dawson."

Austin looked at the fabric in Dez's hand skeptically.

"Nope," Austin said stubbornly. "I'm not wearing it. I'm sure that shirt has been in Ally's presence, so-"

"PUT THE DAMN SHIRT ON." Dez and Trish yelled simultaneously, startling Austin before he complied to their demands.

Trish brushed out Austin's hair while Dez brushed his teeth; even though he was 20 years old and fully capable of doing such tasks on his own, he claimed he was too sad to do them, saying them reminded him of Ally. So he just sat there with tears in his eyes as they readied him for his meeting.

Dez drove while Trish sat in the front seat, Austin sprawled out across the backseat, staring at the ceiling.

"Austin, you need to sit up and put your seat belt on," Dez said. "We're getting on the freeway."

"What's the point?" Austin sighed dramatically.

"To keep you safe in case we get in an accident," Trish said slowly.

"I don't care anymore," Austin said, flopping around in the backseat like a fish out of water. "Let me die, I have nothing left to live for. Let me die in a fiery car crash."

"Austin, stop that," Trish said. "Do you know how sad Ally would be if that happened? She would be devastated!"

"She wouldn't care!" Austin said. "She was the one who said we should take a break, she was the one who left!"

"She did it because she cares about you and your relationship," Trish said. "She's still in love with you, you know that right?"

Austin didn't say anything, he was so out of it he had lost his grip on reality.

Silently, Austin sat up and buckled his seat belt, staring out the window, lost in thought.

Shortly later, they arrived at Starr Records.

"Austin, c'mon," Dez said, trying to pull Austin out of the backseat. "You have to get out."

"I don't want to," Austin pouted, burying his face in the seat and holding onto the opposite door while Dez pulled on his legs to try to get him out of the car.

"Austin, you're being ridiculous," Trish said.

"That's something Ally would say!" Austin wailed sadly.

Trish and Dez exchanged looks, knowing what they had to do.

Dez went around to the other side of the car, Trish holding onto his legs.

"No!" Austin whined as Dez pulled him out of the car. "No!"

Austin struggled and squirmed as Dez held his upper body, Trish holding his legs while the two of them carried him into the building.

"Nothing to see here!" Dez said to the people giving them odd looks in the lobby. "He's fine! He's likes it! It's a game!"

Trish and Dez dropped Austin on the ground as the elevator doors slid shut, taking them to the top floor of the tall building.

"Austin, c'mon, use your legs and walk," Trish said as she stood outside the elevator while Austin laid on the floor, Dez keeping his finger on the door open button.

Austin flopped his legs around, his face pressed against the cold metal floor.

"You know what..." Dez said, reaching down and grabbing Austin's arms and literally dragging him to the conference room.

"What in the world is this?" Jimmy said when Dez and Trish entered the conference room, dragging Austin on the floor.

"Ally said they should take a break," Trish told Jimmy quietly. "And Austin isn't taking it well."

"Ahhhh," Jimmy said, immediately understanding Austin's behavior.

The meeting went as smoothly as it could go, Austin laying on the floor the whole time while everyone else planned his tour.

The first day was definitely the worst. Austin began to return to normal, dressing himself and eating without having to be forced to do so. But he wasn't the same.

He was quieter than usual. He rarely spoke at all, actually. Unless he was being spoken to, he pretty much always stayed silent. Always lost in his thoughts.

He never went anywhere without Ally's book, he had begun to sleep with it under his pillow. He had also started to use the songbook she had given him all those years ago to write down his thoughts and feelings, actually coming up with some pretty good songs with pretty decent lyrics.

But he would never release them.

For one, he only wanted to release songs written by Ally or with Ally. And the songs he had begun writing on his own were too sad, too unlike him.

Because he was sad and not himself anymore.

And if he did end up releasing the songs, the fans would get suspicious. And the last thing he wanted was for the fans hearts to be as broken as his when they found out the news.

So he kept quiet.

He and Ally spoke occasionally; mostly text, a few phone calls, never FaceTime.

Their texts were far and few between. But when they did start a good conversation, it was like nothing had changed. It was like they were best friends again.

They still were best friends, right?

Ally said they would always be best friends the last time she actually broke up with him, so why would it be different now?

Their phone calls didn't last as long as they used to, they were more casual and lighthearted, like they were just talking to Trish or Dez rather than the love of their life.

Austin left for tour at the end of January, he had a shorter leg this time, he would be touring around South America for just a couple months.

Their contact lessened when he went back on tour. Both of them grew busy and his cell service was spotty.

But the space was good.

It didn't feel good to them at first, but over time it felt like a breath of fresh air when they didn't even know they had been drowning for so long.

They loved each other, they really did, but being able to step out into the world as individuals, not anchored down by anything, was something Austin never knew he needed.

He did mission work while he was in South America, bringing food and clean water to some less fortunate areas. He helped them build schools and houses, he really learned a lot about the culture, and he learned a lot about himself.

Austin's tour ended at the beginning of April. Returning to Miami felt like returning to war.

Everything about it reminded him of her.

They hadn't talked much at all recently, they still would like each other's photos and favorite each other's twits, occasionally striking up playful conversations to entertain the fans, but that was pretty much it.

Austin didn't go back on tour until the beginning of summer, so Jimmy had booked him a few random gigs every so often to keep him busy and rehearsed in his downtime.

That's how Austin found himself at a raging beach club, full of spring breakers.

He played his set, amping up the sex appeal a little bit since he was performing for a bunch of horny, wasted, college kids and not a bunch of middle schoolers.

The crowd went wild as he performed, throwing bras and underwear, even condoms at him, but Austin was numb to it all.

Performing was the only place he ever felt truly alive anymore. It was no longer about the fans screaming his name, the bright lights, or the large crowds, it was just about him getting lost in the music.

The music he had written with Ally. Performing was the only place where he didn't feel like his whole world was upside down.

But then the post performance was the worst. Once he finished performing, on his post performance high, is when everything came crashing down.

He would run off the stage after taking his bow only to find that there was no longer a happy brunette songwriter waiting to jump into his arms and shower him with kisses, which is when everything would hit him again.

Even before they decided to take a break, Austin would always call or FaceTime Ally after a performance, but they didn't do that anymore.

"Thanks guys." Austin smiled breathlessly as the crowd cheered after her finished performing 'I've got that rock n' roll', a number that never failed to leave him out of breath.

He took a large swig from his water bottle, his eyes scanning the crowd and landing on one person in particular.

Ally Dawson.

He nearly choked on his water at the sight of her, swallowing hard and coughing several times.

She was smirking up at him, aware of the fact that he had seen her.

She looked phenomenal.

She looked so college; her hair long and wavy, her cutoff denim short shorts, her flowey crop top with spaghetti straps showing off her smooth midriff.

He wondered if she had chosen to wear a crop top that just so happened to be his favorite color because she knew he would be performing. He was 90% sure she had done it just to torture him.

"Umm..." Austin said slowly, caught off guard by his girlfriend (could he still call her that?)'s presence. "This last song is an older song, but I think you guys will enjoy it."

The crowd cheered as Austin took his place for his last number, adrenaline pumping through him, knowing he would be performing for her now.

He sang and danced his heart out; he also improvised a few extra pelvic thrusts, which the crowd was anything but mad at.

It was slightly ironic that the first time he had performed this song was right before he left for his first tour, still trying to work out all the feelings he felt for her. And now here he was after completing who knows how many tours, he's performing the same song, totally aware of how he feels about her, yet in nearly the same situation they were in all those years ago.

"GOODNIGHT MIAMI!" Austin yelled happily before he ran off the stage, the crowd still roaring.

Austin quickly returned to his dressing room, changing out of his sweaty clothes and checking the time.

It was nearly midnight.

The next act, some DJ Austin had never heard of, went on at twelve.

He had been planning to leave before then.

But now that he knew that a certain someone was there, he decided that he could stay a little later.

After fixing his hair and checking his breath, Austin made his way back out to the club in search of the girl he loved.

He pushed his way through the crowd, everyone ignoring him because they were all too drunk to care.

He finally found her, standing between the bar and the dance floor, talking to a group of friends.

His breath hitched at the sight of her.

Her legs were long and tanned, her crop top loose, barely covering anything; her entire outfit could easily be classified as modest underwear.

She had simple dainty necklace around her neck (the one he had gotten her for Christmas to be exact), and sandals on her feet.

Her finger and toe nails were painting the same shade of orange as her shirt, and she was holding a fruity looking drink in her hand.

She laughed at something one of her friends said, glancing over, her eyes landing on him staring at her just a few yards away.

Her smile slowly feel and her expression changed to a slightly stunned look.

She whispered an excuse to her friends before walking over to him, her surprised look replaced with a smirk.

"Fancy meeting you here," she smirked up at him, standing closer than someone would usually stand when having a casual conversation.

"You look great," Austin said softly, not even trying to be subtle as his eyes scanned the entire length of her body.

"So do you," she said, stepping even closer, checking out his body just as he checked out hers.

His hair was messy since he opted against showing after his performance; he was wearing a light blue v-neck with white skinny jeans. His whistle necklace hung around his neck and black high tops on his feet.

"Is that a new cologne?" she asked, sniffing his aroma.

"Yeah," he said bashfully, placing a hand on the back of his neck. "It's from Brazil, it was a parting gift from the group I worked with when I was down there doing charity work."

"It smells nice," Ally said. "Very... Grown up."

"Thanks," he smiled softly.

The two stood in a somewhat awkward silence, not really sure of what to say.

"You smell nice too!" Austin said quickly. "Are you wearing a new perfume?"

"Yeah, it's called alcohol," Ally laughed. "Speaking of which, wanna go get a drink?"

"Yes!" Austin said gratefully.

He walked close behind her as she lead him to the bar.

She ordered them each a drink, handing him his before taking a sip of hers.

"So how's school going?" Austin asked, taking a sip from his own drink.

"Pretty good," Ally said. "The work load has defiantly increased since last semester, but it's going well."

"Ally Dawson complaining about having too much schoolwork?" Austin smirked, leaning closer to her. "I never thought I'd live to see the day."

"Shut up," she said playfully, shoving his shoulder lightly. "So how was your South American tour?"

"It was amazing!" Austin said. "South America isn't really a place I ever really thought about going to, but it was just incredible. And the culture and the people there are so inspiring, I learned a lot and I saw a lot of cool things.

"We went to this mountain range when we were in Peru called the Raura mountains, they were just breathtaking, you would've loved them."

"We should visit them together sometime," Ally smiled, her voice low.

"I would like that," Austin said, his voice also low as their eyes locked.

Their eyes explored each other, rediscovering all the things they hadn't seen in so long.

Suddenly, the DJ began his set, the loud base thumping and the spring breakers taking over the shave floor.

"Let's dance," Ally said, placing her empty glass down on the bar and taking Austin's hand, pulling him to the dance floor.

Austin downed the rest of his drink in one large gulp before following her to the crowded dance floor.

They had never done anything like this before. They had never partied together like this, with the loud music and wasted guests. Every party they had ever attended together had been a work function.

So this was new and exciting territory they were entering.

He stood in front of her awkwardly as she bopped to the music, Austin wasn't sure where he was allowed to put his hands, since he wasn't sure if they were technically together anymore.

Ally noticed his hesitance and grabbed hold of both his wrists, smirking as she placed his hands on her hips.

His eyes widened as he looked down at her, his confidence growing when he saw the smirk on her lips and the mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Hey..." she whispered. "Remember, everyone around us thinks everything is normal between us. So why not give them a show?"

He smirked back at her and pulled her closer to him, their bodies pressed together as they moved to the beat.

Ironically, their bodies _did_ dance like the wind over and over again.

Their hips rolled together, Ally wrapping her arms around his neck and tugged on his hair, Austin holding back a moan.

They danced and danced to song after song, laughing happily. The alcohol began to kick in, neither knew if they were drunk on booze or drunk on simply being each other's presence after so long apart.

He spun her around so her backside was pressed against his crotch, nearly whimpering while she began grinding against him.

"Let's go get some shots!" she said over the music.

Austin nodded, in a daze caused by the intoxication of the alcohol and Ally herself.

After the fourth shot, everything was a blur.

He woke up the next morning with the worst headache he had ever had in his entire life.

Austin blinked his eyes open and found that he was in an unfamiliar room, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

He looked over to find Ally fast asleep next to him, and looked down to see that they were both completely nude.

Ally stirred in her sleep, stretching her arms and letting out a kitten like yawn, which made Austin smile.

Ally opened her eyes lazily, taking in her surroundings and looking slightly surprised to see Austin lying next to her.

"What the hell happened last night?" Ally asked, covering her eyes with her hand to shield them from the painful morning sunlight.

Austin wracked his mind.

He remembered the dancing, he remembered Ally suggesting they do shots, he remembered doing one shot, then another, then another, and then another.

The last clear memory he had from the night before was Ally laying across the bar with salt in her belly button and him licking it out before doing another shot. He also remembered their lips somehow ending up against each other not long after, but after that everything was fuzzy.

"I don't even know..." Austin said slowly. "The last thing I remember is us... Umm... Making out on the dance floor..."

"We made out?" Ally said.

"How else do you think we ended up in this current situation?" Austin chuckled, guesting between their naked bodies.

"Touché," Ally smirked.

Austin smiled.

This was different for them. They had never had sex and not remembered it the next morning.

"So... What now?" Austin asked.

Ally was quiet for a few moments.

"Well..." Ally said slowly. "How about we resume our break after a second round?"

"Seriously?" Austin said.

"Yes, seriously," Ally said. "You down?"

"Oh I'm so down," Austin whispered huskily, his body hovering over hers before he closed the distance and kissed her.

...

After their second round (and an impromptu third and fourth round), Austin left her hotel room, Ally saying she had to meet up with the rest of her group.

They agreed not to see each other again while she was there, he said he would give her her space.

But he did contradict himself a bit when he smashed his lips to hers before he finally left the room.

"Goodbye Austin," Ally smirked pulling away. "Have fun on the rest of your tour."

"Good luck with your last few weeks of school," he said softly.

Their eyes locked together.

Austin couldn't help himself. He leaned in and pressed one last kiss to her lips.

But this kiss was different than all the other kisses they had shared over the previous twelve hours. This one was passionate and actually meant something compared to their sloppy, lust driven kisses from before.

He placed one hand at the small of her back and the other at the base of her head, tangling itself in her long, soft, hair. She smelled like the ocean and tasted like Ally, two of Austin's very favorite things in the whole world.

She was about to pull away, but then it hit here that he would be touring all summer and she really had no clue when she would see him again after this; so instead of pulling away she deepened the kiss, running her fingers through his already tousled sex hair.

They both knew exactly what this meant. This was a goodbye. They didn't know when the next time they would do this would be, so they got lost in the moment. For that moment, all they cared about was each other. There was no tour, no school, no thousands of miles between them, just his lips against hers and her lips against his.

After several more moments of blissful oblivion, they broke apart, resting their foreheads against each other, each trying to regain a normal breathing pattern.

"You should probably go," Ally whispered, knowing where this would lead if he stayed any longer; and as much as they both wanted a round five, they both knew they shouldn't.

"Yeah," Austin sighed, bumping his nose against hers.

They duo stood like that in silence, neither wanting to make the first move to pull away, dying to just stay in that position forever.

"I love you," Austin finally spoke up, his voice raspy and full of emotion.

Ally pulled away, taking a step back from him. She took his hand in her own and squeezed it, nodding her head.

"I love you, too."

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	5. Year 3: part 1

"Hello?"

"I slept with him."

"Huh?" Trish said. "Who?"

"Austin!" Ally yelled into her phone, growing frantic. "We had sex!"

"WHAT?!" Trish said. "When did you guys even see each other?"

"He was performing at the club in Miami my group decided to go to last night," Ally said, pacing back and forth across her hotel room. "We both had too much to drink, then I woke up this morning and we were naked in bed in my hotel room!"

"Are you serious?" Trish said.

"That's not even the worst part!" Ally said. "Drunkingly sleeping together is one thing, but then we went on to keep having sex completely sober and 100% aware of what we were doing!"

"Okay, Ally just calm down," Trish said. "At least it wasn't a stranger you woke up next to!"

"How would that be worse?" Ally said. "I don't even know what we are anymore! We decided to take a break, we haven't seen each other in months, then as soon as we reunite we just have sex like nothing happened? That's not us!"

"I don't know what to tell ya, Ally," Trish sighed.

"He told me he loved me," Ally said. "And I told him I loved him too."

"Does that mean you guys are gonna give up on your break?" Trish asked.

"I don't know!" Ally said, flopping down on her bed. "I really don't know."

...

"We had sex."

"We did?" Dez asked. "When? I think I would've remembered if we had sex."

"Not you and me!" Austin said. "Me and Ally!"

"What?!" Dez said. "When?!"

"Last night," Austin said. "And maybe a few times this morning..."

"Aren't you guys still on a break?" Dez asked. "Is sex allowed when you're on a break?"

"I don't know!" Austin said, pulling at his hair.

"Okay buddy, calm down," Dez said. "It's not like this is just some random girl, it's ALLY. You guys have had sex like a million times, what's the big deal?"

"I don't know, it just is!" Austin said. "It's not like last time we saw each other after being apart for forever. We were still together then. Now we've been on a break and have barely spoken for months, it's not the same!

"I told her I loved her," Austin said. "And she said she loved me too."

"Then why are you guys still on a break?" Dez asked, genuinely confused.

"I wish I knew, buddy," Austin sighed.

...

The pair grew more and more distant after their unplanned spring break reunion.

As soon as Ally finished her sophomore year and moved back to Miami, Austin's tour started again. He would be touring all over North America until Labor Day, which was coincidentally right after Ally went back to school.

In fact, his opening night show in Miami was the day before she got back. It was almost like he planned the entire tour just to avoid seeing her.

The only place they talked to each other was in the foursome's group chat and occasionally on social media, but only when another person such as a fan of Trish or Dez was involved in the conversation.

Speaking of Trish and Dez, the duo was growing very irritated with their friends' antics. It finally was beginning to feel like their problems were affecting them as a group.

Ever since the four of them had become friends, Austin and Ally had always been attached at the hip. Whether it was because they were songwriting partners, helplessly crushing on each other, or completely in love and happily dating, they couldn't stay away from each other.

Now it felt like Austin and Ally were deliberately ignoring one another, and Trish and Dez had nearly had enough of it.

...

"You and Ally need to fix whatever is going on between you guys soon, seriously," Dez said to Austin while they were at Jimmy's annual Halloween party.

"I know," Austin sighed. "I want things to go back to the way there were. I miss her so much. But this isn't something I want to 'fix' over a text message or phone call. She's coming back to Miami for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, so I'm planning on talking to her then."

"Good!" Dez said, feeling much better now knowing that Austin had a plan. "Now let's go get some drinks!"

...

"You need to sort out all this crap between you and Austin," Trish told Ally over the phone while Ally packed to go home for Thanksgiving break.

"I know, I know," Ally said. "I'm gonna talk to him as soon as I get home. I wanna do it in person. This isn't something that should be done over text."

"Good point," Trish said. "Well I'm glad to hear it!"

...

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Austin, Trish and Dez found themselves waiting in a crowded airport, surrounding by families reuniting and hugging happily.

Lester was busy with Thanksgiving preparations and told his daughter's three best friends to go pick her up without him, just have her home by dinner.

Austin craned his neck to look over the thick crowd of people, his heart beating out of his chest and his stomach in knots.

"There she is!" Trish said excitedly. "Ally!"

The brunette's head turned and she squealed at the sight of her best friend, running towards her and pulling her into a tight hug.

"I missed you guys so much!" Ally said, finally pulling away from Trish to hug Dez.

After she let go of Dez, she turned to Austin and gave him the quickest hug he would ever remember receiving from her in all the years he'd known her.

He must've looked disappointed, because she gave him a sympathetic look before pressing a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. This perked him up.

"Lets go get my bags then get out of this madhouse!" Ally said. "I feel like I'm becoming claustrophobic."

Ally threw an arm around Trish's shoulders and grabbed Austin's hand before leading them to baggage claim.

Austin noticed something different about the way she was holding his hand. For as long as he could remember, they always held hands with their fingers intertwined. Now, she was holding her hand as if she was a mother helping her young child cross the street. It felt far less intimate than he was used to.

Once Ally had retrieved her bags, the foursome went back to Ally's house for dinner.

Ally drove the conversation at dinner, filling in her father and her friends on everything she had been doing at school.

After the meal was over, the friends decided to go to the music factory for old times sake.

"Everything looks the same," Ally smiled. "Like we never left."

"Aw crap," Trish said. "I totally forgot I told my mom I'd help clean the house for tomorrow. Sorry guys, I gotta go."

"Yeah and my mom just texted me to remind me that I still have to make a dessert for tomorrow," Dez said. "But we'll see you later!"

"Well I guess it's just us now," Austin said after Trish and Dez left.

"Yep..." Ally said awkwardly. "Just us..."

There were a few long awkward moments where neither musician spoke or knew what to do.

"Wanna go up to the practice room?" Austin asked.

"Yes! Please!" Ally said gratefully. "Let's do that!"

The duo made their way up the stairs and into the room they had spent so much time in as teens.

Wordlessly, they each sat down at the piano, legs pressed against each other.

"Ally, we need to talk."

"Austin, we need to talk."

They had spoken at the exact same time.

"You go first. No, you go first."

Again, at the same time.

"I'll go first," Ally said.

She took a deep breath and met his eyes with her own.

"I think we should break up."

Austin froze. He couldn't speak. He felt numb. Did she actually just say that? Was this actually happening? No, this had to be a dream. An awful, awful dream.

"Austin?" Ally's concerned voice broke him out of his head. "What were you going to say?"

He looked into her eyes. Those perfect brown eyes that he loved so much.

"I was going to say I think we should go back to being an actual couple because I love you," he said softly, averting his eyes to the piano keys.

"Austin..." she said softly.

"What Ally?" he said, growing angry. "What's so unrealistic about that?"

"It's not working anymore!" Ally said. "You can't honestly tell me that since we've graduated high school you've actually been happy with the way our relationship has been!"

"No, I haven't," Austin said. "But that doesn't mean we can't keep fighting."

"Keep fighting for what?" Ally said. "What is the goal? What are we fighting for? To stay in this 'relationship', if you can even call it that, for a few more years until we end up breaking up then? Why not just get it over with now!"

"This is so like you," Austin said bitterly. "Just to give up when things start to get hard."

"It's BEEN hard, Austin!" Ally nearly yelled. "It's been hard since we were 18! Now we're in our twenties and we're still stuck in the same place we were two years ago! Why not just let go and move on?"

"BECAUSE..." Austin said, pausing as he tried to think of a reason not to move on and let go. "I... I don't want to..."

"Austin..." Ally said softly, placing a hand on his cheek. "I know you don't want to. I don't want to either. But what's the point anymore? Did you honestly expect us to pull through all this and end up married with kids?"

"Yes," Austin said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Austin..." Ally repeated. "All that talk of getting married and starting a family and living happily ever after... We were just kids. We didn't know what we were talking about."

"We were happy and in love," Austin said.

"We were still kids," Ally said. "What we had... Was..."

"No," Austin interrupted her. "Don't you dare try to undermine and push aside what we had. I was in love with you and you were in love with me. I _still_ love you."

"And I love you!" Ally said. "I think I'll always have a place in my heart reserved just for you. You were my first kiss, my first boyfriend, my first time, my first love..."

She paused, glancing at the ghost of a smile on his lips as she listed off all the titles he was to her.

"But sometimes I wonder if that's all we were meant to be," she said. "First loves. High school sweethearts."

Austin didn't say anything.

"They're called first loves for a reason, you know," Ally said slowly. "There the first of many loves in a person life. Your first experience with real romance. I hate to think that we could be holding each other's real true love by holding onto a first love.

"My parents were each other's first love," Ally said. "And I watched them fall out of love, trying to hang on to something that wasn't there anymore. I don't want that to be us. I don't want us to hang on and get married and have kids and force them to go through the same thing my parents put me through."

"Okay," Austin whispered.

"Okay what?" Ally asked.

"Okay," Austin sighed. "We should break up."

Ally nodded silently, resting her head on his shoulder.

"We'll always be friends," she said softly.

"Best friends," Austin said, resting his cheek on her head. "And partners."

"Always."

...

Austin barely spoke at all on Thanksgiving.

He murmmered a hello and a goodbye to each of his relatives as they arrived and then left, but other than that he only comminuted through head nods and shakes if someone directly asked him a question. He was lost in his own miserably heartbroken world.

"Austin, what happened?" his mother asked him after the last of the family had left. "You've barely said a thing all day. Do you feel okay, honey? Are you sick?"

She reached over and placed a hand on his forehead, checking for a fever.

"No, mom, I'm not sick," Austin said, clasping her wrist in his hand and removing her hand from his head.

"Then what's wrong?" she asked again as his father entered the room.

Austin sighed, looking between his parents and then to the floor.

"Ally and I broke up."

"Oh sweetheart!" Mimi said, wrapping her arms around him to comfort him, expecting the tears to start any minute. "What happened?"

"I really don't feel like talking abut it," Austin said, pulling away from his mother's embrace, his eyes completely dry. "What's done is done. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed."

Mike and Mimi watched as Austin walked up the stairs, almost like a zombie.

This wasn't Austin. Austin always wore his heart on his sleeve and expressed whatever emotion he was feeling. When he and Ally decided to take a break he cried for days.

But now, it was almost as if he felt nothing about anything; which in Austin's parents opinion, was world's worse than crying.

...

"Where the hell were you?" Trish asked and she and Dez stormed into the Moon's Mattress Kingdom storage room, where Austin had agreed to help his parents during the Black Friday weekend. "Did you forget that Ally went back to school today?"

"No, I didn't," Austin said simply.

"Then why weren't you there to say goodbye?" Dez asked.

"Bevause it would be kind of weird for me to go see my ex-girlfriend off, wouldn't it?" Austin said, picking up a box of pillows and placing them on a shelf.

"Ex-girlfriend?" Dez said softy. "Austin, what happened?"

"We broke up," Austin shrugged.

"Yeah, we get that," Trish said. "What we want to know is why?"

"We decided that were hanging on for no reason," Austin said. "We were hanging onto a first love. So now we can move on and find new loves."

"Austin..." Trish said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay? You aren't acting like yourself..."

"I'm fine," Austin said, jerking away from Trish and going to pick up another box.

"Austin," Dez said. "You cried for days when you and Ally just decided to take a break. What are you acting like you're totally fine?"

"Because I am," Austin said. "I was a kid back then. What can I say? I grew up."

Austin left to go back into the store, leaving Trish and Dez deflated.

"This isn't good," Dez said.

"No," Trish said. "No, it's not."

...

It was Ally's last day of classes, and she wasn't going home. She was flying to New York where she would be meeting her dad before the two of them flew to Africa to spend Christmas with Penny. After Christmas, Ally was flying back to New York to go to some New Year's Eve party Ronnie was forcing her to go to, saying she can't just put her career on hold while at school.

She really didn't want to go, but she knew she had to. She knew the public would soon find out about her and Austin's break up, so she wanted to make some public appearance before that was all people wanted to talk to her about.

She found that focusing on school became much easier when she wasn't always wondering about Austin in the back of her mind. In fact, she had been trying to force herself to forget about him completely.

Obviously, that was hard seeing as though they were one of the nation's favorite couples and constantly had fans online tagging them in posts together.

And then there were Trish and Dez and even some of their mutual back up dancers or band members who occasionally posted throwback photos where they were together. And because it would look weird if thy didn't, Austin and Ally would always reply, acting as though everything was normal.

Everything was not normal and Ally was growing tired of pretending like it was.

...

Trish and Dez were hosting the annual Christmas party for all the student of the music factory. And since Austin was one of the A's in the A&A music factory, he decided to help.

He was having a good time talking with and getting to know the new students. He had forgotten how much he loved working with kids who shared his same passion for music.

"Hey Austin?" Trish said. "We're almost out of cups; can you run up to the practice room and get some more?"

"Sure!" Austin replied happily. "I'll be right back!"

Austin jogged up the stairs and opened the door to the practice room.

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

The last time he had been in this room was when Ally broke up with him.

Ally.

His Ally.

His Ally who was no longer his.

Because they broke up.

They actually broke up.

Oh god, they broke up.

And Ally was gone.

He was single.

Ally wasn't his girlfriend anymore.

He was no longer Ally Dawson's boyfriend.

Wow, was the room spinning?

Austin's legs carried him over to the piano before finally giving out as he fell to the piano bench.

He sat there for a few long moments, gazing at the keys before the dam broke and the tears he had held back for so long started flowing.

And they weren't quiet tears. They were loud sobs, wracking through his entire body. He was shaking, he laid his head in his arms on the piano which emitted a loud unpleasant clash of keys when his arms landed on them, but Austin could barely hear the ruckus over his own cries.

It was like he had been in shock since the initial break up happened, and returning to the scene of the crime had jolted him back to life and brought with it all the emotions he had been numb to for the past few weeks.

"Austin?" Dez said from the top of the stairs. "What's taking you so long? Trish said she sent you up for cups like- Austin? What happened?"

Dez's face dropped as he entered the practice room and saw his best friend crying harder than he had ever seen him cry in their entire nearly 17 years of friendship.

Austin didn't acknowledge his friend's presence, he simply cried harder and worried Dez more.

"TRISH!" Dez called out loudly. "COME HERE NOW!"

"What is it?" Trish asked from the stairs, clearly annoyed. "We're about to do the gift exchange- oh my god Austin, what's wrong?"

Again, Austin ignored his friend or he truly didn't know that there were other people in the room with him now.

Trish and Dez exchanged a worried look, Dez reaching back to close the door while Trish tentatively stepped towards Austin.

"Austin?" Trish said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why are you crying?"

Slowly, Austin lifted his head from his arms. His eyes were red and swollen, his face was red and blotchy, tears still streaming down his cheeks.

"A... A..." he stuttered, failing to hold himself together. "Ally!"

He started sobbing again; this time wrapping his arm around Trish and sobbing into her chest, wetting her festive sweater with his tears.

"Shhh, it's okay," Trish said, taken aback by his behavior, but running her hands through his hair in attempt to calm him. "What did Ally do?"

"Sh-sh-sh-she b-b-roke u-up w-w-with m-m-me," Austin sobbed, his voice muffled through Trish's sweater.

"But that happened almost a month ago," Dez pointed out, clearly still confused. "Why are you just now sad about it?"

"B-b-b-because," Austin blubbered. "Th-th-this i-is w-w-where sh-sh-she d-d-did i-i-it."

Dez and Trish looked at each other, wide eyed. They knew Ally had broken up with Austin, but they didn't know she was cold enough to do it in the place they fell in love.

...

Austin spent all of Christmas moping. He barely left his bed, rarely left his room and never left his house.

He wouldn't eat unless someone brought food to him. He avoided his family room at all costs because seeing the Christmas tree and all the decorations just reminded him how miserable he was.

Jimmy decided that Austin had to make a public appearance soon. They were about to start working on his new album.

"Jimmy wants you to go to New York for New Years," Trish told him.

"Nope," Austin said, his voice muffled by his pillow.

"Let me rephrase that," Trish said. "You're going to New York for New Years."

"Ughhhhhhh," Austin groaned, flopping over onto his back.

"Austin, as your friend I want you to take the time you need to heal," Trish said. "But as your manager, I think you need to stop living like a recluse and make some sort of public appearance before you start working on your new album."

"Fine," Austin sighed. "I'll go."

...

He saw her first.

She was standing near the bar, talking to some couple he knew worked at her label.

She was wearing a tight, sparkly dress. The sleeves were long, the hem was short, exposing her gorgeous legs. She had black strappy heels on her feet.

He suddenly unable to breath.

She laughed at something someone said, her eyes scanning the room and landing on him, her smile dropping and her eyes widening.

She quickly turned back to the conversation she was in, her eyes darting back to him every so often.

Her eyes scanned his body. He was just wearing a navy button up with black slacks and a matching black blazer, but like always, he looked drop dead gorgeous.

After giving a quick excuse to leave the conversation, she made her way over to him.

"Hi," she muttered once she was standing in front of him, giving him a small smile.

"Hi," Austin replied, slightly breathless due to the fact that he was now swimming in the memorizing scent of her hair.

"How have you been?" Ally asked.

"Okay," Austin said. "How's school?"

"It's good," Ally said. "Really good."

There was an awkward lull in the conversation.

"How was your Christmas?" Austin asked.

"Good," Ally said. "We spent it with my mom in Africa, which was pretty amazing."

"That sounds nice," Austin said.

Another awkward lull.

"Want to get some air?" Austin asked, gesturing towards the door that lead to the balcony.

"Sure," Ally smiled.

He held the door for her, she went to lean on the balcony, looking down at the crowded city.

"Ronnie made me come tonight," Ally said, breaking the silence.

"That's funny," Austin smiled. "Because Jimmy made me come."

Ally smiled, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Oh, Als, are you cold?" Austin asked, momentarily forgetting that they were no longer a couple.

"A little bit," she said bashfully.

"Here," he said, removing his blazer and draping it around her shoulders.

"Thank you," she said softly, looking up to meet his eyes.

"Anytime," Austin whispered.

Their eyes locked.

If they hadn't broken up just over a month ago, they would be kissing by now.

Ally was the first to break the eye contact.

"This is awkward," Ally said.

"Yeah it is," Austin agreed.

"Look..." Ally said. "It's clear we're not getting back together and we're moving on, so... I think we should... Stay clear of each other for a while. Just gain some distance."

"Yeah," Austin said. "I think that's a good idea."

"10, 9, 8!" they heard from all around. "7, 6, 5!"

He looked at her.

"4! 3!"

She looked at him.

"2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

She removed his jacket from around her shoulders.

"Happy New Year, Austin," she said, handing him his jacket.

She got on her tip toes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before going back inside.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	6. Year 3: part 2

She unfollowed him first. He woke up on New Year's Day to find that she had unfollowed him on all social media platforms. And not wanting to appear as if he was still pining after her, he unfollowed her as well.

The fans noticed quicker than he thought they would.

Not even 24 hours later his mentions were flooded with people asking what was going on and if he and Ally were still together.

All the teen gossip sites were having a field day with all the articles speculating what was going on between them, each one more outlandish than the last.

Austin found himself stalking her page more often than he would care to admit. He would scroll through her photos and twits to see what was going on in her life, since they had decided to cut contact.

Fans continued to speculate until Valentine's Day, when Ally finally put it to rest.

Her twit was vague, but informative enough.

The fans went nuts.

Austin had a decent number of fans who didn't like Ally, and vice versa.

There were the Austin fans, the Ally fans, and the Auslly shippers. And all three of said groups reacted to the break up differently.

Austin received a number of sweet messages wishing him well and saying they hoped he was doing okay, and saying they hoped they would stay friends.

He also received a number of tweets from people who were never fans of Ally, saying things such as "I'm single", "hi ;)", and even "your dick is mine now".

He worried about what those fans were also saying to Ally.

One night he made the mistake of looking, and he immediately regretted it.

He saw fans, his own fans, saying things like "bye bitch ;)" and "omw to steal your man how my pussy taste" to the love of his life.

He would feel sadness and anger, before remembering that the break up had been Ally's idea. She had initiated it. And she must have known this stuff would happen when the fans found out about it.

And worst of all, #TeamAustin and #TeamAlly had been fighting for the number one trending spot back and forth for 8 whole days.

And he was tired of it.

One night in March, he found himself unable to fall asleep after a long day in the studio working on his new album.

It was so painful having to tap into the songs Ally had written for him before she went to school. It was like constantly opening up the wound, making it even harder for him to heal.

So, his sleep deprived brain thought it would be a good idea to search his ex-girlfriend's name on tweeter.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

The top result was a story by one of those teen gossip sites titled "Ally Dawson's new boyfriend! Pics inside!".

He wished he had stopped there, but he couldn't. He couldn't help himself from clicking on the link and reading the story.

The text was short, but they do say a picture is worth a thousand words.

And in that case, they had thousands of words.

The photos were of Ally and some tall, dark haired, super built guy, who Austin assumed was also a Harvard student.

There was an array of photos of the duo in various places. Some appeared to be taken on a phone, others appeared to be paparazzi photos.

In nearly every picture they were standing very close together, too close for people who were just friends. Ally was laughing happily, smiling up at this new mystery guy. It made Austin want to curl into a ball and stay in bed forever.

How could she do this? They had broken up what, 4 months earlier? Wasn't it a little soon for her to be all over this new guy? Did she break up with him just so she could go be with this guy?

Before he even knew it, Austin found himself staring at Ally's contact, just waiting for his finger to tap her number and call her to confront her about this.

But luckily, he stopped himself.

They weren't together anymore. He hadn't seen or spoken with her in over three months. She was free to go out with anybody she wanted to. He had no say in it.

And he had to accept that.

...

His album finally came out at the end of April.

Austin found himself at his album release party, wishing he were anywhere else in the world.

Dez couldn't make it. It was Carrie's parents anniversary and they were having a party for them.

Trish wasn't there either. She was at a convention in New York, speaking about her work on Broadway and her work as a manger.

And obviously, Ally was nowhere in sight.

Austin glanced around the room. Out of all the people there, he could tell you the names of like five of them.

Sighing, Austin made his way over to the bar, making the irrational decision to drown his sadness in alcohol.

After finishing his third (or was it his fourth?) drink, he noticed a girl making eyes at him from the other side of the bar.

Normally, something like this would bother him. But, he was now single and pretty intoxicated, so he looked back at her.

She had shinny black hair and piercing green eyes, her skin was pale in contrast to her blue dress that hugged her curves.

Throwing caution to the wind, he did something he hadn't done in years.

He went over and began flirting with her.

He learned that her name was Charlie and she was an aspiring music producer. She was a year older than him and was from Chicago.

They continued chatting over a few more drinks, Austin actually began to enjoy himself as he got to know the interesting girl sitting next to him.

...

He woke up confused. Very confused.

After rubbing the sleep from his eyes he glanced over at the sleeping form next to him.

Her back was to him, her dark hair falling over her bare shoulders.

Austin smiled, running a finger down the line of her black lightly, twirling a lock of her hair in his fingers.

Austin's smiled dropped. Something was off.

What happened to the cute little birthmark Ally had on the small of her back? And when did her skin get so milky white? And when did she dye her hair black? And when did she get that tattoo on her shoulder?

And then Austin put two and two together.

This wasn't Ally.

He slept with Charlie.

The girl he had met not even 12 hours ago at his own album release party.

Shit.

He sat up and carefully hopped out of bed, not wanting to wake the still sleeping girl.

He quickly gathered his discarded clothes from across the floor of the room, wincing when he saw that his shirt had been removed as soon as they entered the room the previous night, seeing as though it was on the floor inches from the door; his pants not far away.

He went back to make sure she was still asleep, nearly tripling on her dress on the floor as he did so.

After scribbling a quick note about how he had an important meeting to get to, he left the hotel room.

He felt guilty. Guilty because it wasn't even that this was a drunk hookup. Yes, both had been drinking, but the fact was he was fully aware of what he had been doing the night before. He did it on purpose.

His alcohol clouded mind was convinced that if he slept with this girl, he would be able to forget about Ally.

It didn't work.

He felt like he had betrayed Ally, even though he hadn't done anything wrong.

He felt like he had cheated on her and had to keep reminding himself that they weren't together anymore and that he was allowed to be with other girls just like she was allowed to be with other boys.

Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore. The guilt was too much.

Before he even realized what he was doing, he had pulled out his phone, pressed Ally's number and called her.

"Austin," Ally said when she answered, sounding worried. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Austin said. "I just... There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Ally said.

"Umm..." Austin said.

"Austin, you're scaring me," Ally said. "What happened?"

"I was with someone," Austin said quickly.

"What?" Ally asked, clearly confused.

"Last night," Austin said. "I met a girl at my album release party and we got to talking and long story short... I slept with her."

"Okay..." Ally said slowly.

"I just..." Austin said. "Felt like I should tell you."

"Austin, you don't have to keep me updated on your love life," Ally said. "We broke up, remember? You are welcome to go out with and sleep with any girl you want."

"I know..." Austin said. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Well..." Ally said.

"Oh yeah, you probably have a lot to do, so I'll let you go," Austin said. "Bye Ally."

"Bye Austin."

As soon as he hung up she called someone else.

It was stupid, it was petty, it was immature, she knew that. But the brokenness inside her was screaming at her how to "get revenge" and it was so loud she couldn't ignore it.

"Hey Wes! Yeah, I'd love to do dinner tonight!"

...

He had been trying to pursue her for months. And not in a pushy way, he was very open with his feelings. He said he really liked her and that he would be perfectly content just being her friend, since he knew she had just gotten out of a serious relationship.

She had been holding herself back. She felt guilty for starting to like another guy so soon after she and Austin had broken up. He was different from Austin, slightly.

Wes was very sweet and very smart. His humor was different than Austin's, it was much dryer and more intellectually driven, but still funny.

She had a nice time at dinner, she really did like him.

And when she invited him back to her place, he was surprised, but obliged happilhe night was enjoyable. Wes was a good kisser and very good in bed. She didn't want to compare him to Austin, but he was different. Not a bad different, just different.

When she woke up wrapped in his arms, she was alarmed when she didn't smell the scent of a summer's breeze mixed with a slight syrupy aroma that always surrounded Austin.

Instead she smelled an oaky smell mixed with spearmint. It wasn't bad, just different.

She got up and showered. As soon as the warm water hit her, so did the guilt.

How could she do this? She had betrayed Austin!

No. She hadn't betrayed Austin. They weren't together anymore. She could sleep with whoever she wanted to, just like he could.

She was probably only feeling like this because it was the first time she had slept with someone other than Austin. Everyone probably feels this way when they have sex with someone who isn't their first for the first time.

But why did she do it?

Did she just sleep with Wes because she was upset with Austin? She had no reason to be upset with Austin, she broke up with him. And she really liked Wes, but she didn't want to lead him on.

After she finished showering, she found that Wes was no longer in her bed. She got dressed and went out to the kitchen to find Wes making breakfast.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Wes smiled.

"Morning," Ally said.

"Last night was..." Wes said, walking over to stand right in front of her. "Incredible. Absolutely incredible."

"Well, I try," Ally giggled awkwardly.

Wes chuckled, leaning down to press a soft peck on her lips.

"I made breakfast," he said when they broke apart.

"Aw, you didn't have to do that," Ally said.

"Its the least I could do!" Wes said, handing her a plate with a stack of waffles on top.

Waffles. Not pancakes.

Not bad, just different.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	7. Year 4: part 1

Austin never did see Charlie again. He went back on tour just days after his album release party.

Every time he performed he couldn't help but feel guilty. Singing Ally's lyrics every night reminded him of how he had betrayed her...

Even though he hadn't.

He hadn't done anything wrong.

Granted, he probably shouldn't have led Charlie on the way he did.

But he and Ally had broken up. He should be able to hook up with or date any girl he wanted without feeling like he was cheating on Ally in some way.

...

Wes was a good boyfriend.

He was sweet, smart, thoughtful, funny; he was also very good looking and a very good kisser.

But he wasn't Austin.

And to Ally, that seemed to be the only factor about Wes she was focused on.

The two of them kept in contact while they were home for the summer, and when they got back to school in the fall, Wes asked Ally to be his girlfriend.

And she said yes.

...

"So how has the first month of your senior year been?"

"Pretty good," Ally said. "I'm dating this new guy..."

"WHAT?!" Trish said. "You have a new boyfriend and you haven't told me about him yet?!"

"Calm down," Ally chuckled. "We've only been exclusive for like a few weeks."

"Wait, so how long were you not exclusive?" Trish asked.

"Well..." Ally said slowly. "I always knew he liked me, then Austin and I broke up and he was polite and gave me space but was still my friend. Then he asked me out and I told him I'd have to think about it, but then Austin called me and told me he hooked up with this girl and I was so hurt, even though I had no right to be upset! I broke up with him! So I told Wes I would go out with him and one thing led to another and he ended up at my place and we slept together."

"You didn't!" Trish gasped.

"Yes, I did," Ally said. "So then we started dating, but it was at the end of the school year, so we didn't make anything official until we got back a few weeks ago."

"Gotcha," Trish said. "Sooooo... What's he like?"

"He's really nice," Ally said. "He's super smart and sweet and thoughtful."

"Is he hot?"

"Trish!"

"Ally!"

"Fine," Ally sighed. "He's literally the definition of tall, dark and handsome."

...

"Trish, what the hell?" Dez said as he answered the phone. "It's like two in the morning!"

"ALLY HAS A NEW BOYFRIEND!"

"What?"

"You heard me!" Trish said. "Ally has a new boyfriend!"

"Crap," Dez said. "What are we gonna tell Austin?"

"You have to tell him," Trish said. "You're his best friend. He needs to hear this from you and not some gossip site."

"Fine," Dez sighed. "What do I need to tell him about him?"

...

"Hey buddy, what's up?"

"We need to talk," Dez said seriously.

"Oh," Austin said. "We'll make it quick, I have rehearsal in a few minutes."

"Ally has a new boyfriend," Dez blurted out.

Austin was silent for a few long moments.

"What?" Austin said.

"Ally has a new boyfriend," Dez repeated. "They started dating in the spring and according to Trish, Ally said he's the definition of tall, dark and handsome."

Silence again.

"Oh," Austin said softly. "Well... Good for her."

"Are you okay?" Dez asked.

"Yeah!" Austin said quickly. "Listen buddy, I've gotta get to rehearsal. I'll call you later!"

Austin hung up his phone before Dez could even say goodbye. He flopped down onto his back on his hotel room bed and stared at the ceiling, unsure what to feel anymore.

...

Ally broke up with Wes right before they went home for Christmas break.

She knew it was harsh to break up with someone so close to the holidays, especially when she knew he had already purchased a gift for her, but she just couldn't take it anymore.

Christmas was pretty uneventful for both Austin and Ally. They both spent the day with their families.

New Years however, was a different story.

Austin was performing in Times Square on New Year's Eve for the second time in his life.

Its funny how this used to be his lifelong dream, but now it seemed so mediocre in the whole schem of things that was life.

Ronnie made Ally go to New York too. Since she was entering her last semester and graduating in the spring, Ronnie was egar to begin working on another Ally Dawson record once she was done with school.

...

She should've known he'd be there. She should've known he'd be performing. She should've known he'd be absolutely incredible. And she most definitely should've known that seeing him perform and in the flesh would stir up all those old feelings she was trying to push away.

But she didn't.

...

He rubbed his hands together, thankful to finally be out of the freezing New York air and into the warm party.

She was looking at him.

As ironically poetic as it was, she made him do a double take.

She was wearing a low cut black blouse tucked into a tight sparkly skirt.

Had it really been a whole year since they had seen each other?

She smiled and waved at him, silently drawing him over to her.

"Austin!" she smiled, pulling him into a friendly hug. "How are you?"

"Good," he laughed, surprised by her touchiness. "How are you? How's school?"

"Good," Ally smiled. "I'm super close to being done, which is exciting."

"That's awesome!" Austin said. "I'm really proud of you, Ally."

"Thanks," she said softy.

There was a long pause in the conversation.

"Wanna go get a drink?" Ally finally asked.

"Yeah," Austin smiled. "That'd be great."

The duo got their drinks and found seats near the corner of the room. Yes, it was a private party and most of these people wouldn't care if they saw Austin Moon and Ally Dawson together, but you can never be too careful.

They got to chatting and it started to feel like old times.

They talked and joked and laughed just like they used to.

Austin had forgotten how much he had missed making her laugh.

"So..." Austin said, both of them trying to regain composure after Austin had told a story in such detail that they each had tears in their eyes from laughing. "Are you dating anyone?"

It was a very straightforward question. She wasn't surprised that he asked it. In fact, if he hadn't asked it she knew she would've ended up asking it minutes later.

"No," Ally sighed. "I was dating this guy for a while, and he was really nice, but I don't know, I guess my heart just wasn't in it."

"Yeah," Austin said softly.

"What about you?" Ally asked. "Are you dating anyone?"

"Nope," Austin shook his head. "I would think you more than anyone would know how difficult it is to maintain a relationship whist on tour."

"Good point," Ally smiled.

After that, they fell into conversation again, but this time it was flirter, almost as if they were subconsciously returning to the way they would act when they were a couple because they knew the other was available.

All the sudden, it was two minutes to midnight.

They stood up and made their way over to the window so they could have a view of the ball.

All around them people were counting down.

"3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Austin looked down at her to find that she was already looking up at him.

"Happy New Year, Ally," Austin said softly.

"Happy New Year," Ally whispered, her face slowly inching closer to his.

Before either of them knew what was happening, their lips were pressed together and they were kissing passionately.

They broke apart after they had both become to breathless to continue.

"You know," Ally breathed in his hear, still pantibg. "My hotel isn't even a block away. Maybe we could head back there... Together... Would you be up for that?"

Austin's only response was to nod frantically and take her hand, pulling her towards the exit quickly.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


	8. Year four: part 2

She left before he woke up the next morning.

After lightly stroking his cheek with her fingers and admiring the soft that played on his lips as he slept, wondering if he was dreaming about her, she left. She didn't even leave a note.

Needless to say, the last thing Austin expected to find when he woke up was an empty hotel room that wasn't even his own.

He let out a long sigh, wondering if what happened the previous night would ever happen again.

...

"What the hell happened on New Years?!"

"What?" Ally said, confused. "Have you not been online recently?" Trish asked.

"No, I literally just landed like five minutes ago," Ally said. "I haven't even gotten my luggage yet."

"Well..." Trish said slowly. "A lot of interesting photos surfaced from New Years. Photos of a certain celeb couple that had reportedly broken up... But these photos were anything but platonic..."

"Oh no," Ally said softly.

"What happened?" Trish asked again.

"We.." Ally said. "We might have slept together..."

"WHAT?!" Trish said.

"Listen, Trish, I can't talk about this right now, and I really don't want to," Ally said as she approached baggage claim. "I'll call you later."

...

Ally was late.

Ally was never late.

She was always punctual when it came to everything.

Which is what made this especially concerning.

"I'm late," Ally said frantically as soon as Trish picked up the phone.

"Huh?" Trish said.

"I'm LATE," Ally repeated.

"Oh!" Trash said, catching her drift. "Well, do you think you're... Ya know..."

"I don't know!" Ally said, resisting the urge to start chewing on a lock of her hair.

"Ok, calm down," Trish said. "Have you taken a test yet?"

"No!" Ally said. "Oh my god, what would I tell Austin?! How would he react?!"

"Ally, you haven't even taken a test yet," Trish reminded her. "Why don't you do that before you start freaking out."

"Good idea," Ally said.

...

It was a false alarm.

Part of her felt relieved, but another strange part felt slightly disappointed. Like it was another connection between her and Austin that was lost forever, even though it never was.

...

She graduated in May.

Her parents went, Trish and her family went, even Dez and his family went.

Mike and Mimi even made the trip north for the occasion.

But Austin was not present.

He contemplated calling her, but then he remembered the first day of the year when he woke up in her hotel room and she had already packed her things and left.

He did however, send her flowers.

Sure, she didn't get them until a week after the ceremony and the card wasn't very personal or heartfelt, (just a simply "congratulations - Austin") but it's the thought that counts, right?

...

He almost didn't agree to go back to the Helen show.

But after giving it a lot of thought, he decided it might be good for him to go back to where everything began.

He may or may not have watched the video of Ally destroying the set a few times on the plane back to Miami.

...

She was excited to go back to the Helen show.

Her career had been put on hold while she was at school, so she was excited to finally get back into things.

She had spent her entire summer writing songs.

But not just any songs. She had spent her entire summer writing songs about Austin.

Meaning she would have to perform a song that was about Austin on live TV.

She just hoped people wouldn't be able to read in between the lines. Or ever listen to the lyrics at all.

...

The moment they were off camera backstage, Austin's lips were back on Ally's.

He had gone nearly eight months without kissing her, he needed to make up for all the time he had lost just being stupid.

 _"How did I give this up?"_ he kept asking himself as his lips moved passionately with hers.

Ally responded incredibly enthusiastically to his affection.

She had spent the past few months trying to push Austin out of her mind; trying to forget how much she adored this, and how good at this he was, and how phenomenal his tounge felt dancing with hers.

However, it was different now. He was a 22 year old, full grown man. And oh, as if he didn't already have her constantly swooning in high school, he had grown even more swoon worthy (if possible) as an adult.

His hands were riding low on her waistline; his fingers grazing the top of her rear ever so slightly, but enough to drive her wild.

Her hands were in his hair. Oh how she had missed his hair. And him. She had missed him a lot. But also his hair. Her hands gripped and tugged at his soft golden locks, causing him to moan into her mouth (another thing she missed, even more than his hair).

"I guess our plan worked." Trish said, smiling up at Dez. "They don't seem mad at each other anymore."

Dez smiled, recognizing her familiar words that she had already said to him once in the past, years and years ago.

"They don't, do they?" said said smiling down at her.

Austin and Ally continued to kiss passionately, oblivious to everyone around them until a producer came up and tapped Austin on the shoulder.

"Um," the producer said slowly. "Sorry to interrupt, but could you two possibly take this somewhere else? It's just that we're trying to film a show and you're kinda in the way..."

Austin glanced down at Ally, feeling as though he would never be able to wipe the smile off his face.

"What do ya say, Ally?" Austin asked. "Should we continue this in a more private location?"

"I think that is an excellent idea, Austin," Ally beamed.

Austin through an arm around her shoulders and began to lead her out of the studio.

"If you guys need us, we'll be at the music factory," Austin said to Trish and Dez. "Probably in the practice room with the door shut."

"Just make sure you knock," Ally added.

"Oh we remember the drill," Dez said, grinning down at Trish.

Trish couldn't help the smile from creeping onto her face.

Things were finally back to how they used to be.

And even more important, everything was finally back where it belonged.

 ** _reviews make me happy :)_**


End file.
